Raleigh Man Scares Woman To Death
Larry Whitfield, a 20 year old man from Raleigh with no previous criminal convictions, is being charged with first degree murder after he caused a 79 year old woman to die. Whitfield had tried to rob a bank and failed, then went to hide in a home close by. Sadly even after warning the woman that he wouldn’t cause her harm, she died of heart attack.
Under a legal concept known as the felony murder rule, it’s not uncommon for prosecutors to bring a murder charge against a defendant who doesn’t intentionally harm a victim. The rule exists in some form in every state and lets authorities bring murder charges when someone dies during a crime such as burglary, rape, or kidnapping.
“If you’re committing any of those offenses and a person dies, that’s first-degree murder,” said Locke Bell, Gaston County’s district attorney and the prosecutor in Whitfield’s case.
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MMI
02/03 04:25 AM
Without debating the virtue of pressing a murder charge here, I’d like to state that even a disgraced former Durham District Attorney could get that charge tossed (or at least reduced). The woman in question was overweight, diabetic, and had an enlarged heart. It’s a toss-up to say that this man in her home was THE inducing factor of her M.I.
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