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Son guilty of killing woman while she slept
By CARY DAVIS, Times Staff Writer NEW PORT RICHEY -- Twelve Pasco jurors were forced this week to consider the unthinkable: A New Port Richey woman had been shot to death, and her son, who was 18 at the time, stood accused of the crime. The very thought of matricide apparently took its toll on one juror, a middle-aged woman who wiped tears from her eyes as the verdict was announced. But the emotion of the crime didn't stop the woman and her fellow jurors from reaching the conclusion that Richard Andrew Pratt, now 21, had indeed committed the unthinkable. After three hours of deliberation Thursday, the jury found Pratt guilty of first-degree murder in the June 1998 killing of his mother, setting up a penalty phase to decide whether he should die for his crime or spend the rest of his life in prison. Suerita Pratt, 50, who was legally blind, was shot in the back of her head as she slept in her New Port Richey home. Prosecutors say Pratt killed her because she did not approve of his girlfriend, and he blamed her for the break-up of the relationship. The jury returns today to recommend a sentence. Circuit Judge William Webb has the final say on Pratt's sentence, but by law he must give the jury's recommendation great weight. Pratt, his narrow face ashen, displayed little emotion as the verdict was announced. He clenched his jaw repeatedly and shut his eyes. Pratt did not testify, and his attorneys called no witnesses. Instead, defense attorney Sam Williams attacked Pratt's three roommates, all key witnesses for the prosecution, on cross-examination. Those witnesses -- Eric Iranpur, Adam Caton and Christina Achinelli -- told an unbelievable tale, full of inconsistencies and lies, Williams said in his closing argument Thursday morning. Williams even suggested on the trial's opening day that Iranpur might have been the killer. Prosecutor Mike Halkitis conceded that his star witnesses' stories had some inconsistencies. And he conceded that the witnesses were not, as he put it, "pillars of the community." But, Halkitis said, if the prosecution was stuck with unsavory witnesses, it was Pratt's fault. After all, they were Pratt's friends, his associates. As Halkitis put it: "You're not going to find swans in a sewer." How Pratt fell into the sewer is a story in itself. He grew up with all the advantages of an affluent family. His stepfather, Ken Pratt, who raised him, is an executive with an Iowa-based company. Ken and Suerita Pratt owned two homes in Pasco, one on the waterfront in Hudson and another on Amity Court in New Port Richey. The Amity Court address, where the murder took place, had plenty of luxuries: a swimming pool with a screen enclosure, a tennis court, dog kennels, a bidet in the master bathroom. Ken Pratt drove a blue Corvette and owned an antique car, a 1958 Ford retractable. But life in the Pratt household was full of discord. The problems sometimes exploded in violence. When Pratt was 15, and the family lived in California, Pratt hit his mother in the head with a hammer when she tried to make him go to school, according to court records. Pratt also stole from his parents and lied to them, the records show. The family moved to Florida a year before the murder. Soon, another rift opened, one that would lead Pratt's parents to throw him out of the house on his 18th birthday. In late 1997, Pratt started dating a 16-year-old girl named Jessica Stroud. His parents didn't approve of Jessica. And according to records, Jessica's parents felt the same way about Pratt. At one point, Pratt scrawled a note to himself in a day planner: Kill Mr. and Mrs. Stroud Dispose of bodies in personal vehicles. Pratt and Jessica broke up several months before the murder. Pratt blamed his mother. The relationship between mother and son grew worse, escalating into violent arguments, Ken Pratt testified during the trial. Before the murder, Pratt told his roommates that he planned to kill his mother, according to testimony at the trial. His roommates didn't believe he would follow through with his plans. They thought he was joking. Iranpur testified that he was with Pratt the night of the murder. He said they drove to Suerita Pratt's house with two stolen rifles. In the driveway, Iranpur said, Pratt told him he was about to kill his mother. "I was thinking, "Yeah right. Who kills their parents?"' Iranpur testified. Moments later, Iranpur heard a gunshot. Suerita Pratt had been shot in the head at point-blank range. The next day, Pratt returned to the house and, according to prosecutors, dragged his mother outside, leaving a trail of blood on the white pool deck. Her body was found at the back of the property, covered in a blue plastic tarp. After the verdict was announced Thursday, the defense called two witnesses to demonstrate why Pratt's life should be spared. One of the witnesses was Pratt's biological father, Richard Freshley. He and Suerita Pratt never married, and they split up when she was pregnant, he said. Then Mrs. Pratt called him one day and told him he had a 12-year-old son. Freshley said he began spending time with Pratt. He knew Pratt and his mother were having problems, he said. But he didn't think the problems were unusual. "I just felt," Freshley said, "that he was a normal, adolescent young man."
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