Quick Facts
Biography
Marion Albert Pruett (October 4, 1949 in Gastonia, North Carolina – April 12, 1999 in Cummins Unit, Arkansas) was an American spree killer.
Witness Protection Program
In 1979, Pruett was given $800, a new name (Charles "Sonny" Pearson), and placed in the United States Federal Witness Protection Program after testifying about a federal prison slaying in Atlanta, Georgia. He then began his crime spree under his alias. Pruett would later claim that he killed the cellmate.
Pruett killed Peggy Lowe after he kidnapped her as he robbed the Jackson, Mississippi Savings and Loan, where she worked; Bobbie Jean Robertson, a convenience store clerk in Fort Smith, Arkansas; and two convenience store clerks in Colorado. He received a life sentence for Lowe's murder, two more life sentences for the murders in Colorado, and the death penalty for Robertson's murder.
On trial in New Mexico for the March 2, 1981, murder of his common-law wife, Pamela Sue Barker (aka Michelle Lynn Pearson), Pruett admitted he had robbed and killed her in order to support a $4,000 a week cocaine habit, but denied that he killed Barker, who was beaten to death, then set on fire. He was convicted, and given a third life sentence. From death row, he asked a Mississippi newspaper to pay him $20,000 to disclose the location of Barker's engagement ring, and offered to reveal the location of a Florida victim's body in exchange for a paid appearance on Geraldo.
Execution
Pruett was executed by lethal injection at 8:04 PM and pronounced dead at 8:09 PM. Pruett was the 19th person executed by Arkansas since Furman v. Georgia.