Attorney R. Scott Whitehead, the third and most important of Harvey Tipler’s cellmates who say they plotted with him to kill Assistant State Attorney Russ Edgar, testified Thursday for the prosecution.
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Whitehead worked with criminal investigators to tape jailhouse conversations with Tipler. Those conversations will be played for the jury today as the prosecution wraps up its case.
On the witness stand Thursday, Whitehead confirmed that some of what he recorded Tipler saying involved the defendant’s plan to pay a man named Dion Lowe to arrange for a hit man in Atlanta to stalk and kill Edgar.
And like Lowe and Wallace Morris, a third man Tipler is alleged to have discussed his plan with, Whitehead said he wanted nothing to do with the plot but played along in hopes of advancing his own interests.
“I hoped Mr. Edgar wouldn’t get killed, number one,” Whitehead said when asked about his motivation for going to authorities to sell out Tipler. “Also, leniency. I hoped I could get probation to give me an opportunity to reimburse the victims of my crimes.”
Whitehead and Tipler knew one another as attorneys in Okaloosa County before their careers were derailed.
Disbarred for misconduct in 2008, Tipler originally was arrested on racketeering charges in 2009 and has been taken into custody twice since then on the same charge. Edgar has been prosecuting Tipler’s cases from the start.
Whitehead had his license to practice law suspended in 2010 following several arrests on alcohol-related charges. Edgar’s special prosecution unit charged him with racketeering and aggravated white collar crimes in 2011.
Whitehead pleaded no contest to the racketeering charge and will be sentenced May 17. It is likely he will be ordered to reimburse about $300,000 he has admitted stealing from clients.
Whitehead testified Thursday that it was abundantly clear when they were serving time together in August 2012 that Tipler despised Edgar. The first time Tipler told him he wanted Edgar dead was last Aug. 14, Whitehead said.
“He said, ‘You know, I can have Russ Edgar killed for $10,000,’ ” Whitehead told the jury.
After that, all Tipler spoke about was the plot, which had been launched months earlier, Whitehead said.
Tipler knew Whitehead’s mother was wealthy enough to cover her son’s legal bills of about $200,000, Whitehead testified, and he wanted Whitehead to convince her to put up the cash needed to carry out the killing.
Tipler even had it worked out that Joseph Floyd, a former Crestview Police Department major who Edgar also had indicted on racketeering charges, would be blamed for the killing, Whitehead testified.
Whitehead, who evidence indicated already had tried a couple times to get investigators interested in Tipler’s supposed illegal activities in jail, said he called his attorney immediately upon learning of the plot to kill Edgar.
Randy Crowder, an investigator with the state attorney’s office, also was called to the stand Thursday to outline the investigation into Whitehead’s allegation.
The state attorney’s office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement were able to confiscate a letter from Tipler to Lowe — his liaison with the hit man in Atlanta — before it left the jail, Crowder testified.
The same letter, thoroughly analyzed, was confiscated again after it arrived at the home of Lowe’s cousin.
Crowder told the court Thursday that Whitehead was given free rein with tape recorders given to him to capture conversations with Tipler.
Under cross-examination by Tipler’s defense attorneys, Crowder said it would have been too dangerous and could have risked the investigation if authorities had exercised greater control over Whitehead’s use of the recording devices.
The prosecution will put one more witness on the stand this morning before it plays Whitehead’s tapes. The defense’s case could last the rest of the day.
State Attorney Bill Eddins said closing arguments likely will end Saturday morning before the jury gets the case.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.