Minutes before David Earl Parnell shot a convenience store cashier Jan. 10 in north Fayette County, he posed as a customer: filing out lottery tickets and grabbing a cold bottle of Hawaiian Punch.
Parnell, an Alabama resident, probably didn’t plan for it all to be caught on the store’s surveillance video. And surely he didn’t plan to leave his fingerprint behind on the drink bottle.
But that’s how it went down, providing two key pieces of physical evidence behind the state’s case, according to Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Hayes.
P
arnell pled guilty to the crime Monday, and he was sentenced to life in prison plus another 15 years by Fayette County Superior Court Judge Robert “Mack” Crawford.
The victim testified that while Parnell pointed the gun at him, Parnell said: “Don’t think this is a fake gun,” Hayes recalled.
And then, Parnell pulled the trigger, Hayes said, wounding the clerk in the leg with a gash that took 16 stitches to close, Hayes said.
The incident happened Jan. 10, 2011 during the ice storm that struck the metro Atlanta area. In fact, the person manning the cash register at the BP at the corner of Ga. highways 314 and 279 was actually not an employee, but had opened the store to cover for an employee who was snowed in, Hayes said.
Parnell initially escaped capture, but the fingerprint hit not only identified him, it also informed sheriff’s detectives that he was on parole at the time for theft of services, Hayes said. He was arrested in Alabama and extradited back here for trial.
It is believed that Parnell was in the area visiting acquaintances prior to committing the assault and robbery.
The surveillance video provided a solid record of what Parnell did in the store prior to the shooting, Hayes said.
“He actually spent about 14 minutes in the store prior to approaching the clerk and pointing the gun,” Hayes said.
The video also showed the Hawaiian Punch bottle that Parnell grabbed prior to leaving, which led to the tell-tale fingerprint.
The video also depicted Parnell on his cellphone much of the time, and detectives were able to get records showing his calls bouncing off a nearby cellphone tower, Hayes said.
Hayes said the lead case agent, Det. Brent Rowan of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office, did an excellent job in presenting a solid case to prosecute.
