Officer Quinn Witherspoon, 34, died 9/13/05 at 904 South Magnolia Street in his Mooresville home. He was found lying on the couch in the living room with a single gunshot wound to the head with his own 40 caliber Beretta service weapon. His wife Misty placed the 911 call at approximately 2:10 p.m. At the time of the shooting two of his children, 3 and 18 months were sleeping in a bedroom and his 7-year-old daughter was at school. His wife told police she was in the bathroom when the gun fell from a shelf and was taking the gun to her husband when she slipped and the gun accidentally went off and the bullet hit Witherspoon in the head. Officer Witherspoon was an eleven-year veteran of the Concord Police Department in North Carolina since 1994. A native of Mooresville, Witherspoon graduated with an associate degree in criminal justice from Mitchell Community College. He also received his Basic Law Enforcement Training from Mitchell Community College. Witherspoon also received a Bachelor of Science degree from Gardner Webb University. Witherspoon was a K9 officer for eight years and the North Carolina State Representative for the International Police Work Dog Association. Quinn Witherspoon’s Concord police K9, “Tank”, attended the burial and watched his partner carried to his final resting place while a police honor guard gave a 21-gun salute. Approximately 400 people attended the funeral. His wife Misty who he was married to for 11 years and his three children, Katherine, Sydney & Seth, survive Officer Witherspoon.
Misty Keller Witherspoon, 32, was arrested and charged October 5, 2005 with first-degree murder after the September shooting death of her husband. A $500,000 bond was posted for Misty Keller Witherspoon on March10, 2006 and was released from Iredell County Jail. The bond is conditional upon Misty Witherspoon having no unsupervised contact with her children and having no contact with any of the state’s witnesses who aren’t directly related to her.
On July 16, 2007, after only a few hours of deliberations, a jury of 8 women and 4 men found Misty Witherspoon guilty of first degree murder in the shooting death of her husband just before noon. Superior Court Judge Kim Taylor sentenced Misty Witherspoon with life in prison without parole. The judge also sentenced her on several other charges she pleaded guilty to earlier in the year. Misty was also sentenced to three months for 40 counts of I.D. theft and 15 months for embezzlement. Misty will serve those sentences concurrently with her murder charge.
