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Luvenia
SPATES
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Domestic dispute
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: September 22, 2011
Date of arrest: Same day
Date of birth: 1958
Victim profile:
Robert Lee Armstrong, 67
Method of murder: Shooting
Location: Bessemer, Jefferson County, Alabama
Status: Sentenced to 30 years in prison on September 4, 2014
Bessemer woman sentenced to 30 years for
murder in 2011 shooting death
By Kent Faulk - al.com
September 04, 2014
BESSEMER, Alabama -- A Bessemer woman was
sentenced today to 30 years in prison for her conviction in the
2011 shooting death of a man during a domestic dispute.
A jury in April found Luvenia Spates, 56,
guilty of murder in the death of 67-year-old Robert Lee Armstrong.
Spates was sentenced to 30 years in prison
Friday by Bessemer Cutoff Jefferson County Circuit Judge David
Carpenter. She will be given credit for the four months she spent
in the county jail awaiting sentencing.
Armstrong was found shot to death Sept. 22,
2011 in the 2900 block of 12th Avenue North in Bessemer. The
shooting was the result of a domestic dispute.
Assistant Jefferson County District Attorney
Wendy Pope prosecuted the case. Attorney Billy Jewell represents
Spates.
"I respect Judge Carpenter's decision, however,
I along with her many strong supporters from her church and
community felt that the sentence should have at least been in the
minimum range of twenty years split (with) 3 to serve," Jewell
stated in an email response to questions from AL.com. "I have not
talked to her about an appeal. Hopefully, I can meet with her soon
to discuss what she wants to do."
Armstrong's estate also has a wrongful death
lawsuit pending against Spates. The estate also had claimed she
had taken Armstrong's 2003 Kia Sorento. In 2013 a judge ordered
that Spates transfer ownership of a vehicle to Armstrong's estate
but had stayed the wrongful death portion of the suit until after
the criminal trial was completed.
