1A SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2013 | YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1874 | $1.00 Lake City Reporter LAKECITYREPORTER.COM Championships Girl Scouts launch SUNDAY EDITION at stake in hoops ‘MEdia’ column in for Tigers, Indians. 1B Lake City Reporter. 1D Ford guilty of murder, arson shared with Kristy L. Whatley. A Columbia verdict shortly after 7 p.m. man who admitted to law enforcement Faces possible life term County jury convicted Ford of first-degree The trial lasted five days. he poured gasoline on the couch and lit for starting house fire that arson, as well. The jury heard from 20 it. Prosecutors say he escaped south on Ford faces a maximum penalty of life witnesses, including tool- Interstate 75 through a hole he cut in a killed girlfriend in 2009. in prison for second-degree murder, with mark experts, the state fence on the property. The mobile home a minimum sentence of 25 years. Second- fire marshal and Whatley’s Whatley and Ford shared for about one By DEREK GILLIAM degree arson carries a maximum sentence family members, includ- and a half years was off Lake Jeffery Road
[email protected] of 30 years in prison. Ford, 46, will be Ford ing Whatley’s mother and and bordered I-75. sentenced on Feb. 27 at 1:30 p.m. in the sister. Getzan argued cutting the hole in the Kenneth Allen Ford was found guilty Columbia County Courthouse. Roberta Getzan, assistant state attor- fence proved premeditation, and the jury Friday of second-degree murder for start- The jury deliberated for about seven ney, began closing statements at 9 a.m.