Opinion ID: 1346963
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Stolen Computer Far Away From the Fire Site

Text: In the early afternoon after the fire that killed Dr. Whitley, Lively and Mike Stafford (not a defendant) drove up to Dr. Whitley's Coon Branch residence, ostensibly to tell his estranged wife about the fire. Dr. Whitley's wife was not home when Lively and Stafford arrived and they waited for her to return. When she returned she invited them in, made them coffee and asked Lively if he would clean up the house. (There were many animals at the Coon Branch home and there was dog poop throughout the house which had not been cleaned). Lively got a garbage bag, went from room to room cleaning and allegedly stole a laptop computer that he hid in the garbage bag. Later that day, Lively attempted to pawn the laptop computer. This theft bears little resemblance to Dr. Whitley's alleged murder. The State's theory of the murder was that Lively and Owens broke into Dr. Whitley's house, threatened and burned him to death because they were after money and drugs that they believed Dr. Whitley had at his residence. It is noteworthy that Lively would allegedly break into a house and burn a man to death in the morning in order to carry out a robbery, but by the early afternoon, he chose not to break into an empty house, instead he waited on the front step for Dr. Whitley's wife to return. Once she returned, Lively did not threaten, burn or murder Dr. Whitley's wife to carry out a robbery, instead he allegedly stole a laptop by sneaking it out in a garbage bag. Furthermore, the alleged co-conspirator, Owens, was not with Lively when the laptop was allegedly stolen. How in the world does this theft show that Lively and Owens acted together to carry out crimes and violence as contended by the State? It does not. The prosecutor had a weak case and convicted the defendant because he was a bad guy.