Parker due to be sentenced
By DWIGHT OTWELL Cherokee Sentinel Editor

Surveillance cameras show Parker inside the bank talking with employees prior to the robbery.

Convicted bank robber Leonard O. Parker is due to be sentenced Friday in federal court in Bryson City.

Parker, 49, was earlier this year found guilty of all 10 counts in the bank robbery of two banks in 2006, including the First Citizens Bank branch in the Peachtree section of Cherokee County.

Parker, who previously owned Mountain Max Auto Superstore on the Murphy Highway in Union County, was charged with bank robbery and kidnapping in connection with the January 11, 2006 robbery of the Peachtree bank and the January 6 robbery of the Mooresville Savings Bank in Cornelius, North Carolina. Parker and his wife resided in Morganton, Ga., at 132 Oak Ridge Way at the time of the robberies.

It took a federal Grand Jury only an hour and 15 minutes to find Parker guilty of all 10 counts against him. Parker testified for himself and was his only witness in the trial. Parker claimed insanity because he said he quit taking Paxil, an anti-depressant and anti-anxiety drug, during the time of the bank robberies.

There were five prosecution witnesses, including First Citizens Bank teller Jean Higdon and Parker's wife at the time of the robberies.

They have since divorced.

Both robberies were similar, in that Parker used a pistol and forced tellers to drive him away from the bank to his getaway vehicle. Parker was arrested at the hotel at Harrah's Cherokee Casino in Cherokee. His wife didn't know about the bank robberies, officials said.

Parker acted like a customer at the Peachtree bank before he used a Tarus PT 138 .380 semi-automatic pistol to rob the bank. He fled the First Citizens Bank with a plastic bag full of cash totaling about $20,000.

He forced Higdon to to drive to the Murphy Medical Center parking lot, about a quarter mile away from the bank. He told Higdon not to look where he went. He got out of the car and walked away.

The robber 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 was arrested the next day in the hotel room at the casino.

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 Circuit, 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.

Parker faces a possible maximum of 144 years in prison or a fine of $1.5 million or both. Sentencing is scheduled at 2:30 p.m. Friday before Federal Judge Lacy Thronburg, who presided over Parker's trial.