THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 2, 1995 TAG: 9503020482
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CURRITUCK LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
A Powells Point woman who told police she killed her husband in self-defense was arrested late Wednesday for manslaughter.
Wanda Clara Whitmore, 42, turned herself in to the Currituck County Sheriff's Department at 4:45 p.m. and was expected to be released Wednesday evening after posting a $10,000 bond.
Whitmore is charged with the shooting death of Eddie James Whitmore Jr. last week at their home on U.S. 158 in southern Currituck County.
Wanda Whitmore arrived at the sheriff's department with her leg in a cast to protect a fractured knee she said she suffered during the domestic dispute that ended with her husband being fatally wounded.
``She looks a lot better now,'' Sheriff Glenn Brinkley said. ``She's still upset,'' he added.
Wednesday's charge comes two days after a grand jury indicted Whitmore for manslaughter. Under the state's new structured sentencing, she could serve up to 98 months in prison, depending on various factors, if convicted.
Whitmore and her husband were fighting when their 6-year-old son placed an emergency call at 7:21 p.m. on Feb. 20.
By the time a Currituck County officer arrived nine minutes later, Whitmore had been shot once in the chest and once in the stomach.
``She said she felt threatened, got a gun and shot him'' with a .22-caliber pistol, said Susan Johnson, a spokeswoman with the Currituck County Sheriff's Department.
An emergency medical technician from the Lower Currituck Fire and Rescue Station in Harbinger arrived immediately after the police and called in a medical examiner, Johnson said.
Wanda Whitmore was taken to Albemarle Hospital, where she was treated for facial cuts, bruises and a broken knee. She and her son currently are staying with family in Currituck County, Johnson said.
At the time of the shooting, Whitmore was on probation for previously assaulting his wife, Johnson said. He was employed with the North Carolina Department of Transportation at Maple.
``It's a rarity for us to see the end result of a domestic escalate into a murder,'' Johnson said. However, she added, violent domestic disputes are on the rise.
The last domestic dispute to end in homicide in Currituck County occurred Aug. 3, 1993, at Carova Beach when a Norfolk man killed a photographer who had been living with his estranged wife.
Craig Wendell Schaefer, 37, was sentenced to life in prison last fall after pleading guilty to second-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping and felonious breaking and entering.
KEYWORDS: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE MANSLAUGHTER ARREST by CNB