By Mark Stodghill, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.
Feb. 4–Sharon “Liz” Witherspoon’s boyfriend Bruce Potts told Texas police that he shot the former Duluth woman to death in bed on Jan. 8, according to the arrest warrant charging him with felony murder.
Bruce Wayne Potts, 34, of DeSoto, Texas, and his cousin Lavan Damon Potts, 29, of Wilmer, Texas, are being held in the Dallas County Jail in connection with Witherspoon’s death.
The body of the 34-year-old daughter of Duluth civil rights leader Sharon Lee Witherspoon was found Wednesday in a hole in a wooded area of a Dallas park.
BRUCE POTTSLAVAN POTTSSeveral witnesses interviewed by DeSoto police said that the victim and Bruce Potts met in an Internet chat room.
Rachel Horton, spokeswoman for the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, said each of the suspects had bonds set at$1 million on Friday.
Horton said that when the arrest warrants are filed with her office, a date will be set to present the cases to a grand jury for murder indictments.
For a crime to be considered capital murder — which is punished by the death penalty — in Texas, it must be committed during the course of another felony or there must be multiple victims, Horton said.
“We are very selective with cases that are chosen for the death penalty,” she said.
Capt. Ron Smith, head of investigations for the DeSoto Police Department, said murders are rare in the south Dallas suburb of about 40,000 people. No murders were committed there last year.
The first-degree felony murder charge the Pottses are arrested on is punishable with five to 99 years in prison.
According to Bruce Potts’ arrest warrant:
DeSoto police received an anonymous call from a woman Jan. 28 stating that a woman had been shot in an apartment complex and the body was disposed of. Bruce Potts, Lavan Potts and a woman known to the caller as “Phoebe” cleaned the apartment with chemicals, the tipster said.
Police interviewed Phoebe Potts White, Bruce Potts’ mother, on Tuesday. She told investigators that she heard two shots in her apartment and that her son shot and killed Witherspoon.
Bruce Potts gave a statement to DeSoto police on Wednesday. Police say he told an investigator that he killed Liz Witherspoon with a .380-caliber handgun at about 6:15 a.m. on Jan. 8, while she was lying face up in bed.
No motive for the shooting was listed in the arrest warrant. Potts told police that he put the victim’s body in a trash container with the assistance of his cousin and another man.
He said they drove to a field and placed the body in a shallow concrete culvert and covered it with concrete blocks. On Wednesday he led DeSoto and Dallas police to the body.
Twin Ports businessman Bob Brooks has established a memorial fund for the victim’s family.
Donations for the Liz Witherspoon Memorial Fund can be dropped off at any of area Republic Bank or mailed to the Republic Bank at 306 W. Superior St., Duluth, MN, 55802.
The donations will be used to help defray funeral expenses and to help support Witherspoon’s five children.
MARK STODGHILL reports on legal affairs and public safety. He can be reached weekdays at (218) 723-5333 or by e-mail at [email protected].
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Copyright (c) 2006, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.
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