A Los Angeles woman was charged Friday with murder for allegedly killing a disabled man, his mother and his stepfather at their home in Leimert Park in a crime that a Los Angeles police captain called “senseless” and “brutal.”
Nancy Amelia Jackson, 55, is being held without bail while awaiting arraignment July 11 on three counts of murder, with a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, for Monday’s killings of Phillip White, 65; his mother, Orsie Carter, 82; and his stepfather, William Carter, 83.
Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Jackson, who was arrested Wednesday while inside a vehicle in Culver City and taken into custody without incident.
At a news conference at Los Angeles Police Department headquarters with the victim’s family members looking on, Capt. Peter Whittingham told reporters, “What I have seen indicates that this lady was manipulative in nature (and) took unfair advantage of the illness of Mr. White and frowned upon anybody intervening, including his mother and stepdad.”
The LAPD captain — who said investigators have a case “supported by verified ballistic and forensic evidence” — told reporters that Jackson went from being a “mere person of interest, maybe even a material witness” to being arrested and charged in the “senseless and brutal murder of this innocent family.”
“… We have identified, developed evidence that now in our minds conclusively identified the only suspect who is responsible in this case,” Whittingham said.
He said a driver’s license photo released by police when they were trying to track down Jackson, showing her smiling, was “deceiving,” telling reporters that what he saw was “pure evil in that individual.”
Jackson had been staying at White’s home for three to six weeks and “had some prior knowledge years ago of Phillip,” the police captain said.
He said “this was a case where you have somebody who was down and out on their luck, it appears, and found somebody, a kind-hearted, giving person to provide help and support and give her a chance to get off the street. But in so doing, she also used that opportunity, in my view, to manipulate Mr. Phillip White, who as we know was disabled, and take unfair advantage of him and his kindness, and what we see at that location is a result of that kindness that was extended to (her) by Mr. White.”
Whittingham said “because of her abuse of the privilege that she (Jackson) was given and her manipulation, Phillip’s mother, who is, as I understand it, designated legal caretaker for Phillip and was clearly aware of what she was trying to do, insisted … that she leave. But as we now know, she was not going to have anything to do with what she was told because she had, in my view, determined that it was a good thing and nobody was going to get between her and a good thing.”
The bodies were discovered around 8:20 p.m. Tuesday inside White’s home in the 3900 block of South Bronson Avenue. The three had been shot and suffered blunt force trauma to the head, according to police.
“Without being too vivid, it’s a case where you have three bodies piled on each other,” Whittingham said earlier this week. “… It’s just a sad way to spend your last days or your last breath.”
White’s brother, Terry Carter, who was among the family members on hand for the news conference, called his family “beautiful, loving, gracious, generous people.”