Whiteside Murder: Shooter receives 25 years
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Earl Wright expressed remorse Tuesday for shooting Edward “Dickie” Whiteside, just before being formally sentenced to 25 years in prison for murder.
Wright, 18, must serve 20 years of his sentence before being considered eligible for parole.
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Standing before Warren Circuit Judge John Grise, Wright and his attorney, Diana Werkman of the Department of Public Advocacy, made it clear that he was remorseful.
“I’m sorry for what happened,” Wright said. “I can’t change what happened. All I have to do is learn from this and move on.”
On May 28, 2009, Wright traveled with four people to Whiteside’s apartment on Kentucky Street.
Wright then shot Whiteside, 64, with a 12-gauge shotgun. His four traveling companions, C.J. Bunton, Jasmine White, Traymel Lee and Cameron Thomas, were all charged in connection with the incident.
When he entered his guilty plea last month, Wright admitted that he and Whiteside were involved in an argument the day before the shooting. In that incident, Whiteside reported to police that three young men came to his apartment and one of them approached him with a shotgun, pointed it at him and threatened to kill him, according to a Bowling Green Police Department report.
Although Wright was a juvenile at the time of the shooting, Warren County Commonwealth Attorney Chris Cohron planned to try him as an adult.
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White, 18, and Lee, 17, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter by complicity. White is serving a 15-year sentence, and prosecutors have recommended the same length of time for Lee, who awaits sentencing Aug. 24.
Bunton, 20, entered an Alford plea to first-degree manslaughter by complicity and tampering with physical evidence, and is serving a 15-year sentence.
Thomas, alleged to have been the person who drove Wright to Whiteside’s residence, was charged with facilitation to commit murder. In a plea agreement reached with prosecutors, that charge was dropped in exchange for a guilty plea in an unrelated domestic violence case, according to Cohron.
Thomas, 21, was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in prison on one count of second-degree assault, a charge to which he entered an Alford plea.
In an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit wrongdoing but acknowledges that enough evidence exists for a jury to return a guilty verdict.
The assault charge resulted from a June 30, 2009, incident in which Thomas burned his girlfriend with an iron during an argument.
Thomas’ attorney, David Cole Jr. of Bowling Green, argued for probation for his client, telling Grise that Thomas has two children and other family to support, including the victim, who Cole said is now engaged to Thomas.
“He also has a grandmother who has supported him through this entire ordeal and she needs his assistance,” Cole said, adding that Thomas’ fiancee did not want to see him go to prison.
Cohron said the extent of the victim’s injuries and the use of the iron as a weapon called for the nine-year sentence to be imposed, despite the victim’s apparent wish for probation, and Grise agreed that the nature of the crime was too serious to grant probation.
“It’s not uncommon in cases of domestic violence for victims to wish to lessen the repercussions for their abuser,” Cohron said.