
DATE: Saturday, July 26, 1997               TAG: 9707260438

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  109 lines

THE VERDICTS IN VIRGINIA BEACH ROBBERY: WOMAN'S CRIMES LIKENED TO THOSE OF MA BARKER

Blythenia Weatherspoon told the jury she was a good-hearted woman who took in troubled youths looking for a hot meal and a place to stay.

She never turned her back on anyone in need, Weatherspoon testified, opening the doors of her Olympia Lane home to numerous young men and women who had fled their homes in crisis.

A 12-member Circuit Court jury on Friday decided her motives were more sinister than charitable. The jurors convicted the 45-year-old former Norshipco worker of robbery, malicious wounding and other crimes for running a Ma Barker-style crime gang out of her Virginia Beach home and recommended a sentence of 79 years in prison.

Instead of food and shelter, prosecutors said, Weatherspoon provided the young people who shared her home with the weapon and encouragement to commit armed robberies at three McDonald's restaurants in Virginia Beach during December 1995 and early 1996.

``This case is about family values turned upside down, inside out and distorted,'' said prosecutor Cynthia Shepherd. ``She provided the masks, gloves and guns to youngsters as they headed out the door. What more encouragement and assistance do young men need?''

Although she never actually demanded money at gunpoint, Weatherspoon was just as guilty of committing the crimes as other, more famous criminals convicted of encouraging others to commit offenses for them, Shepherd said.

``Like Charles Manson, who never actually killed anyone, and Manuel Noriega, who never sold drugs on the street, and even Ma Barker, who sent her sons out to commit crimes,'' Shepherd said.

Weatherspoon, the mother of four children, displayed an open-minded attitude about who became a part of her family.

She took in one youth who wasn't getting along with his family, became godmother to a Portsmouth woman who needed direction in her life, and provided a bed to one of her son's friends who had been jailed several times, according to court testimony.

``He had no place else to go,'' testified Weatherspoon's daughter, Blythenia N. Weatherspoon.

Weatherspoon helped the youths even though her 19-year marriage had recently ended, her job at Norshipco was terminated, and she had suffered several recent bouts of pneumonia, her daughter said in court.

But two of the youths testified that Weatherspoon encouraged them to rob restaurants to help her pay off debts she was incurring from marital, employment and health problems.

Bruce French and Bruce Oliver testified that Weatherspoon provided a them buy masks and gloves and gave them a pillow case to carry the stolen money.

She helped scope out McDonald's restaurants that could be targeted for robberies. Before they left for one of the jobs, Weatherspoon warned her gang to be careful with the weapon because it was registered in her name.

On Dec. 13, 1995, the three men robbed a McDonald's on Lynnhaven Parkway near the intersection of Holland Road. During the robbery, French shot Russell Lockhard, one of the store's employees, injuring him.

The gang struck three more times. They hit two other McDonald's restaurants in January 1996 and returned to the McDonald's on Lynnhaven Parkway in February.

Weatherspoon testified that she was only trying to help French and Oliver, but learned too late that they were both robbing from restaurants and stealing from her.

``It goes to show you that when you take children into your home anything can happen,'' Weatherspoon testified. ``I learned from this.''

Police solved the robberies when the manager of the McDonald's on Lynnhaven Parkway recognized the voice of Quirin Weatherspoon, who used to work at the restaurant.

When police arrested Blythenia Weatherspoon on Feb. 10, 1996, she had more than $900 in her purse from the robberies, she testified. She told police that the money had been given to her by the young men to help her pay her mortgage. When she first received the money, she didn't realize that it was stolen, she said.

But when police searched her house they found McDonald's coupons, more than $100 worth of quarters in her household drawers, and an unexplained deposit of $1,000 in her bank account on the date of the second robbery, according to court testimony.

When police asked her about the robberies, Weatherspoon replied, ``I was for it,'' according to her written statement to police.

During this week's trial, however, Weatherspoon testified that police forced her to change her statement several times and then told her that her statement would not be used against her.

The rest of Weatherspoon's family of criminals also received stiff sentences. Weatherspoon's son, Quirin, was convicted of all four robberies. French, 20, pleaded guilty to the first three robberies, and Oliver, 22, pleaded guilty to the robbery of Feb. 10.

``Because of this woman, Bruce Oliver will be spending the next 13 years of his life in prison and Bruce French will be spending the next 23 years of his life in prison,'' said prosecutor Lorrie Sinclair. ``Her own son Quirin Weatherspoon will be spending the next 36 years in prison.''

Judge Kenneth N. Whitehurst Jr. will sentence Blythenia Weatherspoon on Oct. 1. ILLUSTRATION: Special to the Virginian-Pilot

Blythenia Weatherspoon

THE CASE

A down-on-her-luck woman took in young people with no place to stay

and persuaded them to steal for her, the jury that found her guilty

was told in a Virginia Beach court. The jurors recommended that she

serve 79 years in prison.

Quirin Weatherspoon

Bruce French

Bruce Oliver KEYWORDS: VERDICT ROBBERY GUILTY