Darice Knowles
Vahtiece Alfonzo Kirkman Sentenced to Life in 2006 FL Slaying of Willie Parker
A 32-year-old will become the third gunman imprisoned for his role in a 2006 drug-motivated robbery that led to a fatal shooting in Cocoa.
Vahtiece Alfonzo Kirkman could face the death penalty after a 12-member jury found him guilty Wednesday of first-degree premeditated murder. He also was convicted of attempted murder and attempted robbery. His trial enters the sentencing phase today.
On Feb. 28, 2006, according to the authorities, Kirkman and two accomplices tried to rob 29-year-old Willie Parker South Georgia Avenue. Parker and a friend were sitting on a car outside a home when three men wearing ski masks approached and gunned him down.
Drugs were found in the car, the police said.
One gunman, Christopher Barnett Pratt, 32, told prosecutors in September 2010 that he participated in the robbery. Pratt accepted a plea deal that sent him to prison for 20 years in exchange for testifying against Kirkman.
A third accomplice, Jonathan Lee Page, 25, was convicted of murder in March 2010. He received a life sentence.
As part of his plea deal, Pratt told authorities that he helped someone kill Darice Knowles, 22, a student from the Bahamas who told a police officer about Parker’s killers.
Pratt admitted to helping to bind Knowles with duct tape, then bury her alive in concrete. In August 2010, investigators unearthed what they thought was her body near State Road 524.
Kirkman has not been charged in Knowles’ death. Assistant State Attorney Bill Respess anticipated the slaying would go before a grand jury.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/...t|Local%20News
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