Eric Carroll Parker mug shot (Catawba County Sheriff’s Office), Tangela and Eric Parker (WSOC screenshot)
A 64-year-old man in North Carolina will be going to prison after he admitted to helping his wife evade authorities for months after she walked into her place of employment and executed a co-worker in cold blood over a “petty” workplace argument three years ago.
Catawba County Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Kuehnert on Tuesday ordered Eric Carroll Parker to serve a sentence of 48 to 70 months in a state correctional facility for assisting Tangela L. Parker in the slaying of 51-year-old Phelifa Michelle Marlow, authorities confirmed to Law&Crime.
The Parkers and Marlow were all employees at the furniture plant TCS Designs in Hickory, North Carolina, which is where the fatal shooting took place.
The judge credited Eric Parker with about 2 1/2 years of time served as he remained in pretrial detention since his initial arrest.
Eric Parker’s wife, 52-year-old Tangela Parker, last year pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder in Marlow’s death and was sentenced to 20 to 25 years in prison.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, the victim’s husband, Justin Marlow, told investigators that his wife and Tangela Parker had a silly argument the week she was murdered. The two were said to have quarreled over “moving tables” in the work area at the furniture plant, resulting in Tangela Parker being sent home for three days without pay. Before the shooting, witnesses said Tangela Parker was screaming and cussing at Marlow.
Several employees reported Parker to the plant manager, saying she had “instigated the confrontation” and that Marlow “hardly responded to the outbursts,” prosecutors previously said. Tangela Parker then went to the area where the victim was working and “shot her in the chest with a .357 Magnum revolver.”
Chief Assistant District Attorney Tim Gould spoke during Tuesday’s sentencing proceedings, specifically addressing the coldblooded manner in which Tangela Parker killed Marlow, according to a report from the Hickory Daily Record.
“Officers were able to locate the victim in this case, whose name is Michelle Marlow, lying face down in a large pool of her own blood but barely still alive. She had suffered a gunshot wound to the left side of her chest with an exit wound to her left arm and another gunshot wound entering the back of her head,” he reportedly said. “After being struck with the first bullet, Michelle turned and tried to run away. But Tangela wasn’t satisfied and shot Michelle in the back of the head as she was trying to run for her life. This caused Michelle to fall to the floor where she laid until the EMS arrived.”
Following the fatal shooting, Tangela Parker allegedly gave the murder weapon to her husband, who ushered her out of the building and to their car.
The Parkers then fled the state for six months. They used fictitious names — Jason and Elizabeth Reardon — and a stolen license plate to elude law enforcement while living in their minivan and working odd jobs to make ends meet. They were taken into custody in July 2021 on fugitive warrants in Arizona after making a phone call to Tangela Parker’s parents. The murder weapon was found in the vehicle the Parkers were using when they were apprehended.
According to a report from Charlotte ABC affiliate WSOC, Eric Parker on Tuesday said that he is still in love with his wife and has hopes that they will be reunited when she is released from prison.
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