The News Tribune
TACOMA - A bank teller robbed at work by her son's friend won't have to serve prison time for misleading police.
Kirchele Shuler, 44, pleaded guilty March 23 to obstructing an officer and was given a deferred sentence. That means the charge won't be on her record if she avoids further trouble with the law.
According to charging papers:
Shuler told her son about the May 4 robbery, and he said he knew, because the person who did it was a friend of his.
The friend, 29-year-old Levaughn McVea, was sentenced last year to four years, nine months in prison for the holdup at the Wells Fargo bank at 1001 Pacific Ave.
The day after the robbery, Shuler told police she couldn't identify him when they showed her a photo montage.
Later, she said she had recognized McVea, but didn't identify him because she was in a stressful, uncomfortable situation.
She was originally charged with rendering criminal assistance, but the state amended that to the lesser charge of obstructing police. Deputy Prosecutor Raymond Odell wrote the court that Shuler's polygraph test results "satisfied the state with regard to her initial involvement" in the heist, and that the obstruction charge accounted for her false statements that delayed the investigation.
TNS
