Kenneth Junior French

Case overview

Kenneth Junior French (born January 15, 1971) was convicted in connection with the August 6, 1993 shootings at Luigi's restaurant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in which four people were killed and others were wounded.

French had been drinking whiskey and watching The Unforgiven before the shooting.

Timeline

• August 5, 1993 — After work, French went with three friends to several bars near Ft. Bragg, consuming a great deal of alcohol before returning to the barracks around 3 AM on August 6.
• August 6, 1993 — French murdered four people at Luigi's restaurant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and wounded multiple others.
• February 14, 1994 — Jury selection began.
• End of March 1994 — The guilt-or-innocence phase of the trial was completed.
• 1994 — The jury returned guilty verdicts; French was sentenced to 4 consecutive life terms plus 35 years.
• Since 1998 — French was imprisoned at the Marion Correctional Institute.
• As of 2003 — French was serving his sentence at the Polk Youth Institution in Butner, North Carolina.

The offence

On the night of August 6, 1993, a man stepped out of a truck near Luigi's Restaurant and the Kroger supermarket in Cumberland County, North Carolina. The man carried a pump shotgun and wore shorts, a T-shirt, and a hunting vest. A witness stated that there appeared to be a bottle of beer in his hunting vest.

The man suddenly began firing in the direction of the Kroger store. He then walked to the back of the restaurant and entered through the kitchen area. He then went to the restaurant proper, hollering "freeze." Patrons began running out the door and hiding under the tables.

The man walked through the restaurant and killed four people and wounded numerous others, often firing right in people's faces after they asked for mercy.

A Fayetteville police officer who was working as an off-duty guard for Kroger's heard the shots, called for backup, entered the restaurant, and shot the man holding the gun. When another officer approached, the man with the gun raised it and the officer fired twice. Finally, an officer removed the shotgun and placed the man under arrest. The man was taken to a hospital for surgery.

Victims

• Willie McCormick (cook) — French shot him first when he tried to walk away; McCormick did not die.
• Pete Parrous (proprietor of the restaurant)
• Ethel Parrous (wife of Pete Parrous) — Ethel Parrous stood up screaming as Pete Parrous fell; she was killed.
• Connie Kotsopoulos (daughter of Ethel Parrous) — After Ethel Parrous was killed and fell by her daughter, Connie began screaming and was shot in the thigh.
• Wesley Cover — Cover asked the man not to hurt the woman he was helping because she was pregnant; Cover was shot in the head and died quickly.
• James Kidd (covering his son and hiding in a booth) — French shot Mr. Kidd; he died almost immediately; the son was not physically harmed.

Investigation and arrest

There was little doubt about who had committed the crime. The man arrested at the scene was Kenneth Junior French.

Background and defendant

French was a Sergeant E-5 in the Army and was described as a Sergeant in the XVIII Airborne Corps.

At the time of the crime, French had recently moved into a trailer rented by his fiancée, Elaine Sears, and her two children. Sears and her children were out of state at the time of the crime.

During the defendant’s account presented to the jury, French had no further memory of the events that then transpired, other than he remembered putting guns into his truck and remembered shooting an older woman.

Evidence presented to the jury in the penalty phase included information attempting to show that:

• French had no significant history of prior criminal activity,
• he was relatively young at the time of the crime,
• he had a good reputation in the communities in which he lived,
• he was a product of a violent and chaotic home,
• he accepted responsibility for the shootings.

Evidence presented during the penalty phase also attempted to show aggravating factors that the crime was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel; that French knowingly created a risk of death to more than one person; and that the murder was part of a course of conduct which included other crimes of violence against other persons.

French and The Unforgiven:

• French started watching TV and drinking beer and watched a Clint Eastwood video, "The Unforgiven," imitating some of the drinking and shooting that was going on in the movie.
• French had claimed he blanked out on the evening of August 6, 1993 after drinking a fifth of whiskey while watching Clint Eastwood's The Unforgiven, which concludes with a violent massacre at a saloon.

Family-related calls and statements:

• At one point, French called an old girl friend and she reported that he sounded strange.
• French called his mother in Florida, during which call he started crying and apologizing for not preventing the spousal abuse that he witnessed his father direct towards her.
• French said he could have prevented the sexual abuse and rape of his sister by his father.
• French's mother offered to come to console him, but he said he was all right.

Events after the trailer:

• French went from his trailer to a nearby party, where others reported that he drove erratically and that he was carrying several beers and a bottle of Wild Turkey and that he was hyperactive.
• He was overheard telling some children at the party to "shoot or kill" black people (using a pejorative term).
• French continued acting strangely and alarmed those who saw him.
• He told a friend he wanted to go to a part of town frequented by blacks and that a black man had "raped his sister."

Documentary appearance:

• French was featured in the documentary Licensed to Kill (1997).

Trial

Charges and plea

French was charged with:

• four counts of first degree murder,
• eight counts of assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill inflicting serious injury,
• one count of discharging a firearm into an occupied building.

French pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Venue change

After a request by the defendant's appointed attorney, the trial was moved to New Hanover County.

Verdicts and jury deliberation

Jury selection began on February 14, 1994, and the guilt-or-innocence phase of the trial was completed by the end of March. The jury deliberated for two and a half days and returned a verdict of guilty of:

• four counts of first degree murder on the basis of premeditation and deliberation,
• three counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill,
• four counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury,
• guilty of other lesser counts.

During sentencing, the jury heard aggravating and mitigating evidence.

Sentencing

French was sentenced to 4 consecutive life terms plus 35 years in 1994.

Quotations (verbatim)

Kenneth Junior French included the following statements:

"I don't believe there's anywhere in our Constitution that gives anybody the right to be accepted by anybody else. When the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, people automatically assumed that they had a right to many different things. Women, blacks, now carrying into gays. They feel that they have a right to be accepted? Who--who do they need to accept them?"

"I'm not gonna apologize for the views that I hold towards gays or homosexuals but...I don't think that I went in with the intention of just singling out any certain group of people, be it black, white, male, female, gay, or straight. I was just angry at the world I guess at the time, I don't know. I was just taking out aggression and hatred on whoever was there."

Witnesses reported that during the shootings French shouted:

I'll show you, Clinton, about letting gays into the army.

Outcome and incarceration

French was imprisoned at the Marion Correctional Institute since 1998. As of 2003, French was serving his sentence at the Polk Youth Institution in Butner, North Carolina.

Other details

• French was described as a 22-year-old mechanic in the Army when arrested.
• He had obtained the rank of Sergeant E-5.
• French was convicted on 4 counts of First degree murder; 3 counts of assault with intent to kill; 5 counts of assault with intent to injure; and 1 count of discharging firearm.