By CHERYL CASWELL
DAILY MAIL STAFF
A jury has found a Iaeger man guilty of felony murder in the death of a prominent McDowell County physician and politician.
Charles Jason Lively, 29, was also found guilty of arson in the first degree. The Putnam County jury heard the case when a change of venue was requested. They recommended that Judge Booker T. Stephens grant mercy so he could be eligible for parole.
Lively was accused of killing Dr. Ebb Keister Whitley, 70, of Iaeger in March 2005 by setting fire to the house where he lived adjacent to his medical clinic. Investigators from the state Fire Marshal’s Office said there was evidence the fire was arson with distinct burn patterns of accelerant next to Whitley’s bed and on a first floor couch.
McDowell County prosecutor Sid Bell told jurors that Lively and Owens went to Whitley’s home early that morning knowing he was alone and confined to his bed. Motivated by anger that Lively’s mother had been stripped of her authority at the clinic just days before, they robbed and terrorized Whitley then burned his home.
“After years of providing care to the people of McDowell County, this is the way this good man had to die,” Bell told the jury on Monday. Through witnesses and his summary, Bell outlined for them how Lively reacted to his mother’s rage against the man she had worked and cared for 25 years.
Kathy Lively Hamilton, a licensed practical nurse, told jurors that she was not upset when the doctor told her days before his death that she no longer would be in authority at the medical clinic.
Witnesses testified that she wrote prescriptions, treated patients, gave injections and handled billing at the facility without the doctor’s supervision for years. Whitley, injured in a fall in 2000, was unable to work very often and required daily care after that.
But Whitley became unhappy about the situation at the clinic, witnesses said, and also about the care that Hamilton was providing to him at her own home just prior to his death. His sons told jurors he called them and asked to be removed from her care and taken to his own home in Iaeger, where he died shortly after arriving.
Lively, Bell said, killed Whitley in revenge.
In the weeklong trial, Lively testified in his own defense and said he loved the doctor and that his mother had devoted her life to him. He said he was asleep in bed when the fire began.
Jurors deliberated Monday evening and Tuesday morning before reaching their verdict. A sentencing date has not been set. The conviction carries a life sentence, but Lively could become eligible for parole after 15 years. He also faces up to 20 years for the arson conviction.
Contact writer Cheryl Caswell at [email protected] or 348- 4832.
(c) 2006 Charleston Daily Mail. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Comments