Antonio Whitlow Arrested For Allegedly Killing Parents, Annette and Bobby Whitlow, & Abducting Their Adopted Daughter Amber/Witlow committed to the Arkansas State Hospital for indefinite period of time/Whitlow has been diagnosed w/ paranoid schizophrenia

By JEANNIE NUSS 07/29/12 11:05 AM ET
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Amber Whitlow, 12, was found alive yesterday after her adopted brother, Antonio, allegedly abducted her and killed their parents, Annette and Bobby Whitlow.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas man suspected of killing his parents and taking his adopted 12-year-old sister to Memphis will be extradited to face capital murder charges, Little Rock police said Sunday.

Meanwhile, detectives have picked up his sister in Tennessee and brought her back to Arkansas, where she is in Department of Human Services custody while her family makes arrangements for her care, Little Rock police spokeswoman Sgt. Cassandra Davis said in a statement.

Police issued an Amber Alert for the girl Saturday after her parents were found dead in their Little Rock home. A church member going to meet Bobby Whitlow looked inside the home and saw Annette Whitlow lying on the living room floor by a fireplace, according to a police report. He called police, who discovered Bobby Whitlow in the kitchen.

Police have not said how the couple died, but the report lists a knife or other cutting instrument as the weapon.

Memphis police arrested the couple's 33-year-old son, Antonio Whitlow, on Saturday night. Davis said the 12-year-old was with him and did not show any signs of injuries. Memphis is about 135 miles northeast of Little Rock.

Outside the Whitlows' home, neighbors huddled around caution tape Saturday evening as investigators wheeled a yellow body bag out to the coroner's van.

Tyra Marion, 30, said she sometimes saw the young girl riding her bike around the neighborhood, where new homes have been cropping up. The elder Whitlows, she said, were a quiet couple who held Bible studies.

"I would have never thought they were dead," she said.

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Horrible!!

Antonio Whitlow, an Arkansas man suspected of killing his parents and abducting his 12-year-old sister, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia five years ago after he was charged with assault.

Court records show a psychologist diagnosed Whitlow with paranoid schizophrenia and borderline intellectual functioning in 2007, but declared him fit for trial. He eventually pleaded guilty to aggravated assault on a family or household member and received probation.

The 33-year-old was arrested Saturday in Memphis, about 135 miles away from where his parents were found slain in their Little Rock home hours earlier. Whitlow's sister was with him and seemed unharmed, Little Rock Police Sgt. Cassandra Davis said Sunday.

The girl is now in the custody of the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

Davis declined to say whether investigators believe the child witnessed her 65-year-old parents, Bobby and Annette Whitlow, get killed. She said she didn't know whether the girl and her brother ever lived with their parents at the same time.

Police say the couple was killed between noon and 3 p.m. Saturday. Officers were called to the home by a fellow church member who had gone to the couple's home to meet Bobby Whitlow and saw Annette Whitlow lying on the living room floor. Officers found Bobby Whitlow dead in the kitchen.

An Amber Alert was issued for the girl and police in Memphis found Antonio Whitlow and his sister walking along Beale Street, in the city's tourism district, at about 10 p.m. Saturday, according to Memphis Police Sgt. Alyssa Macon-Moore.

Police say they expect Whitlow to be brought back to Arkansas to face charges in his parents' deaths.

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This undated photo provided by the Memphis Police Department shows Antonio Whitlow. Police arrested Whitlow, 33, on Saturday night, July 28, 2012 in Memphis, Tenn., hours after his parents' bodies were found 135 miles away in Little Rock. His sister was with him, and police say she doesn't appear to have been injured. Court records show a psychologist diagnosed Whitlow with paranoid schizophrenia and borderline intellectual functioning in 2007, but declared him fit for trial.



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WOW!! He truly looks insane. I am on the fence here. If he is paranoid schizophrenia and has borderline intellectual functioning, wouldn't that qualify for the insanity plea?

I bet he stopped taking his medication. I know of a couple people that have schizophrenia and they function quite well as long as they are on their meds. When they stop....all hell breaks loose!

Same w/bi polar or borderline personality disorder.

BJ wrote:This undated photo provided by the Memphis Police Department shows Antonio Whitlow. Police arrested Whitlow, 33, on Saturday night, July 28, 2012 in Memphis, Tenn., hours after his parents' bodies were found 135 miles away in Little Rock. His sister was with him, and police say she doesn't appear to have been injured. Court records show a psychologist diagnosed Whitlow with paranoid schizophrenia and borderline intellectual functioning in 2007, but declared him fit for trial.



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:jaw dropping: He looks insane to me.

An Arkansas woman found dead in her home had requested a protective order, saying she feared for her life after her son, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, threatened to kill her.

Annette Whitlow received a temporary order, but it was cancelled after she failed to show up in court.

Annette Whitlow requested the protective order in 2009. Her son had been diagnosed two years earlier with paranoid schizophrenia and borderline intellectual functioning after he pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect to an assault charge. He changed his plea after a psychologist determined he understood the proceedings, could help in his defense and was fit to stand trial.

Whitlow was sentenced to five years of probation that would have ended in October, according to court records. He also was ordered to take domestic violence classes, although it wasn’t clear whether he did.

It also wasn’t clear whether he sought or received mental health care.

Patrick Benca, his lawyer in that case didn’t return phone calls Monday. He said Sunday that he hasn’t had contact with Whitlow, who he described as not “an unlikeable guy.”

Police and court records paint a much different picture, describing threats and violent incidents that happened over several years.

When Whitlow’s mother filed for protection, she said her son pushed her on a bed, twisted her arm back and threatened to kill her.

“I will know that he will kill me,” she wrote. “I am fearful for my life...”

She also said her son told her adopted daughter that “I was a devil because I go to church and I shouldn’t make her go to church.”

Earlier this month, a friend told Little Rock police that Whitlow had been sending him text messages threatening to kill him.

The friend said “Mr. Whitlow is ‘not fully there in the head’ but is tired of the threats,” according to a police report.

A few days later, on July 13, a woman said Whitlow showed up at her home and started kicking the garage door. Another man who lives there said he chased Whitlow off, but Whitlow hopped in a car and tried to run him over before he left.

Grady Carter, a member of the small ministry led by Bobby Whitlow, said he went to the Whitlows’ house Saturday for a meeting.

“She was my spiritual godmother and he was my spiritual godfather,” Carter said.

He walked up to the door and saw Annette Whitlow lying on the living room floor. He rang the doorbell three times, and when no one answered, he let himself in. Then, he said, he called the police, who found Bobby Whitlow’s body in the kitchen.

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A man accused of killing his parents in Arkansas last month was accused of stabbing a man in Tennessee two months earlier and had pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman with a knife in April, according to court records obtained Monday.

Antonio Whitlow, 33, made a brief court appearance Monday in General Sessions court in Memphis on an aggravated assault charge stemming from the May stabbing. He was arrested in Memphis for that crime on the same day his parents were found dead in their home in Little Rock, Ark.

The judge ordered that he be assigned a public defender before his next court hearing Aug. 20. Whitlow was being held in lieu of $50,000 bond.

Whitlow was with his 12-year-old sister when he was arrested on July 28, hours after his 65-year-old parents, Bobby and Annette Whitlow, were found dead. The girl didn’t appear to be hurt.

Authorities expect Whitlow to be charged with murder in the Little Rock slayings, though that case didn’t come up during Monday’s hearing because Whitlow has to consult with an attorney before the case can move forward.

According to a police affidavit, Whitlow is accused of stabbing and wounding Anthony Banks with a butcher knife as Banks got off a Memphis city bus on May 11. Three days later, Banks went to Memphis police and identified Whitlow as the person who stabbed him, police said.

Whitlow was on probation at the time. He had been charged in March with aggravated assault after an altercation outside a group home in Memphis, where a witness said he saw Whitlow get into an argument with Banks, then go after group home caretaker Shirley King with a knife when she tried to break up the argument, according to a police affidavit obtained Monday from online court records.

Banks stopped Whitlow by hitting the knife out of his hand with a stick, the affidavit said. A witness told police that Whitlow was about 6 feet away from King when he was stopped.

Court records show that Whitlow pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of assault-bodily harm and was sentenced to 11 1/2 months in jail, with all but one month of that sentence suspended. He also was sentenced to 10 1/2 months of probation, three days of community service and anger management classes.

The community service and anger management class had not been completed before his arrest in late July, according to court records.

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A Little Rock couple allegedly murdered by their son was laid to rest on Monday.

Annette and Bobby Whitlow were killed in their home last week.

Police say their own son stabbed them both repeatedly before kidnapping his sister.

Antonio Whitlow remains behind bars, charged with the crime.

Services were held at the New Hope Baptist Church.

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lindamarie wrote:

BJ wrote:This undated photo provided by the Memphis Police Department shows Antonio Whitlow. Police arrested Whitlow, 33, on Saturday night, July 28, 2012 in Memphis, Tenn., hours after his parents' bodies were found 135 miles away in Little Rock. His sister was with him, and police say she doesn't appear to have been injured. Court records show a psychologist diagnosed Whitlow with paranoid schizophrenia and borderline intellectual functioning in 2007, but declared him fit for trial.



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:jaw dropping: He looks insane to me.

February 26, 2013

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- A man charged with killing his parents and abducting his sister has been committed to the Arkansas State Hospital after a judge found he was temporarily mentally unfit to stand trial.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims ruled Monday that Antonio Whitlow should be committed indefinitely for treatment of mental illness. Whitlow was charged with capital murder and kidnapping after the July 2012 deaths of parents. He was later arrested in Memphis, Tenn., with his sister, who was 12 at the time.

Whitlow was evaluated by doctors at the request of his attorneys, Kent Krause and Cheryl Barnard, to explore a possible insanity defense.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports (http://is.gd/Y3YR26) that Whitlow has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. A report from psychologists said Whitlow was paranoid and showed signs of psychosis.
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Not a shocker.