Mandrake Patterson Given Three Life Sentences In Greenland Shotgun Massacre

STAFF PHOTO DAVID GOTTSCHALK Mandrake Patterson, center, speaks Friday with attorney Gregg Parrish in Judge William Storey’s courtroom at the Washington County Courthouse in Fayetteville after he pleaded guilty to two counts of capital murder and one count of attempted capital murder in an exchange for life sentences.

STAFF PHOTO DAVID GOTTSCHALK Mandrake Patterson, center, speaks Friday with attorney Gregg Parrish in Judge William Storey’s courtroom at the Washington County Courthouse in Fayetteville after he pleaded guilty to two counts of capital murder and one count of attempted capital murder in an exchange for life sentences.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

FAYETTEVILLE -- A Greenland man accused of killing his wife and mother-in-law and critically injuring a third family member pleaded guilty in exchange for three life sentences Friday.

Mandrake Peatrick Patterson, 28, was charged with two counts of felony capital murder and one count of attempted capital murder. Patterson faced either the death penalty or a mandatory term of life in prison without the possibility of parole on each charge if convicted.

Legal Lingo

Capital Case

In a “capital” case is a prosecution for murder in which the prosecutor may seek the death penalty. When prosecutors bring a capital case, they must charge one or more “special circumstances” the jury must find to be true in order to sentence the defendant to death. Common special circumstances include multiple murders or a finding that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.

Source: nolo.com

Betty DeSalvo, 53, was shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene Jan. 10, 2013, according to police. Hope Patterson, 34, an Army veteran and mother of three, was shot in the stomach and died at Washington Regional Medical Center. Denise Fulfer, 55, was shot in the shoulder and survived.

Washington County Circuit Judge William Storey sentenced Patterson immediately after the guilty plea was entered.

"Mr. Patterson, I have seen a lot of cases like this over the years, although none quite so egregious as this one," Storey said. "You killed your wife and mother-in-law and her sister for no good reason other than an argument. It takes a depraved person to do that."

Garry Lamproe, 65, a brother to sisters DeSalvo and Fulfer told police after a fight, he and his sisters heard what sounded like a gunshot from the apartment's front bedroom.

Lamproe said DeSalvo and Fulfer pounded on the bedroom door. The door swung open and Mandrake Patterson shot DeSalvo in the face and Fulfer in the shoulder as she tried to get away from the doorway.

Lamproe ran out of the apartment and called for help.

Patterson was arrested at the residence minutes later, police said. A shotgun found at the scene.

Matt Durrett, chief deputy prosecutor, said the murders appeared to be more senseless and brutal than most of the cases he's seen.

"He took two lives and forever altered a third one, which is why it's a good thing he's spending the rest of his life at the Arkansas Department of Correction," Durrett said. "He deserves to die in prison."

Durrett said Patterson's excuse for the killings was he got fed up with his wife and in-laws.

"If you get fed up with your in-laws, you walk out the door," Durrett said. "You don't take a shotgun and start shooting people."

Lamproe said after the sentencing he was glad the case turned out the way it did.

"I have forgiven him but he still has to give an account to God. We've just got to leave it in God's hands," Lamproe said.

Neighbors said DeSalvo agreed several weeks before the shooting to let her son-in-law Mandrake and his wife Hope Patterson stay with her at the apartment. They said the Pattersons regularly fought and abused drugs and alcohol.

Police Chief Gary Ricker said he didn't know what led to the shooting, other than an argument between Hope and Mandrake Patterson.

"As far as what it was about, we don't know because she can't tell us and he won't," Ricker said after the shooting.

Lamproe said Friday that Patterson had threatened to kill family members several times before.

The State Public Defender's Office represented Patterson.

NW News on 03/15/2014