Parker trial set to begin
By DWIGHT OTWELL

A security camera in the bank recorded this photo of the alleged robber.

Leonard O. Parker is due in federal court in Bryson City, N.C., on Monday, December 4 to face bank robbery and kidnapping charges stemming from the robbery of a bank in Peachtree in Cherokee County and a bank in Cornelius, North Carolina.

Parker, 49, of Morganton, Ga., previously owned Mountain Max Auto Superstore on the Murphy Highway in Union County. Parker's trial is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. His case has been delayed several times.

Suellen Pierce, with the U.S. Attorney's Office, said the calender will be called Monday and then the state will be set for the remainder of the week, meaning a decision will be made whether to go forward with the case or whether to delay it once again.

Parker is charged with using a semi automatic pistol to rob the First Citizens Bank in Peachtree on January 11, 2006. He is charged with taking a teller hostage. No one was injured in the robbery.

The man who robbed the Peachtree bank pointed a semi-automatic pistol at the bank tellers and threatened them. Cherokee County Sheriff Keith Loving said the man made off with a plastic bag full of cash.

The robber ordered bank employee Jean Higdon to drive him away from the bank. The robber forced Higdon to drive her car to Murphy Medical Center parking lot, about a quarter mile away from the bank. The man then told Higdon not to look where he went. He got out of the car and walked away. Police later put out a lookout for a late-model green pickup truck.

Parker was stopped by a highway patrolman for speeding a short distance from the hospital. The trooper issued a ticket to Parker. The trooper later saw a security camera image of the robber and realized it looked like the man he had stopped.

Parker's home, at 132 Oak Ridge Way, Morganton, GA, was searched and officers discovered that Parker and his wife, Tracy S. Parker, were at Harrah's Cherokee Casino in Cherokee.

Cherokee Police Department officers located Parker's room in the motel. Officers established surveillance on the motel room and arrested him on January 12.

Parker was charged with bank robbery, a federal crime and state charges of armed robbery and kidnapping, according to an FBI spokesman.

On January 25, a federal grand jury indicted Parker for two separate bank robberies - the one in Peachtree and a bank robbery at the Mooresville Savings Bank in Cornelius, North Carolina. That robbery occurred on January 6, five days before the Peachtree bank robbery.

Officials said there were similarities in the two robberies. Parker was indicted for forcing a bank employee at the Cornelius bank to drive him away from the bank, just as he is charged in the Cherokee County bank robbery.

If convicted on all the charges, Parker faces a total maximum of 144 years in prison or a fine of $1.5 million or both.

Parker closed the doors of Mountain Max in 2005 and reportedly filed for Chapter 11 status. He was being investigated for alleged crimes committed through his business. Stan Gunter, district attorney for the Enotah Judicial District, said local officials had earlier begun an investigation into wrongdoing involving Parker's business, Mountain Max. However, the investigation was turned over to federal law enforcement authorities.