Opinion ID: 2156968
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: other-robbery murder: f-3 (agreed upon case)

Text: (1) DONALD LOFTIN 1 Approximately five weeks before he committed a robbery-murder at the Exxon on Business Route 1 in Lawrenceville, Loftin fatally shot Sophia Fetter, a sixty-nine-year-old chambermaid, in the head while she was cleaning Room 1134 of Harrah's Casino Hotel in Atlantic City. He had fired another shot that missed Fetter. Loftin stole Fetter's keys that opened the guest bedrooms and maintenance closets. Loftin, who was twenty-seven years old, had no prior record. He had worked in a warehouse and as an armored car driver, and he was a full-time college student when he committed the offenses. Aside from teenage marijuana use, Loftin had no substance abuse problems. A defense expert in the gas-station robbery-murder case concluded that Loftin had borderline personality disorder, but a prosecution expert disagreed with that conclusion. When Loftin was five, his father abandoned the family. One year later, Loftin set his mattress afire and caused his family home to burn down. Loftin never received counseling for these traumatic events. The Atlantic County Prosecutor proceeded noncapitally. A jury convicted Loftin of purposeful-or-knowing murder, felony murder, robbery, burglary, and weapons offenses. The court sentenced him to an aggregate term of life imprisonment plus fifteen years with a thirty-five-year parole disqualifier. The AOC coded as present the c(4)(f) (escape detection) and c(4)(g) (felony murder) aggravating factors and the c(5)(a) (extreme emotional disturbance), c(5)(c) (age), c(5)(f) (no prior record), and c(5)(h) (catch-all) mitigating factors. [11]