The man dubbed the “mid-aged bandit” could end up with a different moniker — the “old-aged inmate.”
A 405th State District Court jury late Thursday sentenced Kyle Edward Whatley to life in prison for aggravated robbery.
Whatley, 54, stole an electric toothbrush from the Kroger supermarket in Texas City on July 27. As Whatley ran out of the store, a clerk followed him until he turned and brandished a pistol. He told the clerk to lie down he ran off.
The gun was a BB-pistol. However, the clerk had no idea it was anything but a deadly weapon, prosecutor Bill Reed told jurors Thursday.
“When you point this at somebody and say, ‘Get on the ground,’ that is an immediate threat,” he said.
Jurors agreed, taking less than an hour to convict Whatley.
The charge normally carries a prison term of five to 99 years. However, because Whatley had six prior aggravated-robbery convictions, the minimum sentence was 25 years. He was not eligible for probation.
Whatley testified during the punishment phase of the trial Friday, asking jurors for mercy and blaming his robberies on his cocaine habit.
However, Reed apprised jurors of a Friendswood armed robbery last year for which Whatley faces another charge.
That robbery was only one of six aggravated-robbery charges pending against Whatley. Those robberies occurred last year at businesses in Galveston, Brazoria and Harris counties.
Terming him a “serial spree aggravated robber,” Reed said Whatley was too dangerous to return to society and asked jurors to sentence him to life.
After the verdict, Reed said “an alphabet soup of law enforcement agencies” worked together to capture Whatley and build the case against him.
“I’m especially thankful to all those officers whose cooperation helped close this case,” Reed said.
Hours after the Texas City robbery at the heart of this week’s trial, Texas City SWAT team members tracked his vehicle to a La Marque motel and captured him in a room there.
Whatley will be eligible for parole in 2036, when he will be 83.
