She is soft-spoken and articulate, but even six years after the death of her brother-in-law, the quiet anger against Pati Park is evident just beneath the surface. "You wake up and the calendar has turned to the year 2000 and you realize in the back of your head that the day is coming ," says Lori Park, the wife of Larry Park's younger brother, from her home in the mountains of western Montana. In addition, family, community members and clergy from Pati Park's native Scotland wrote letters on her behalf to the Santa Clara County Superior Court at the time of Park's conviction, pleading for leniency.īut others close to the situation think of Pati Park as a murderer who deserves the punishment she received. Blair called Park's conviction a "misguided verdict." He said at the time of Larry Park's death, he'd known the couple 23 years. Blair wrote to the judge at Pati Park's sentencing hearing. "I have never been so convinced of 'accident' and 'unintentional' tragedy in my professional career," family friend Ronald E. Some have rallied around Pati Park's case and raised money for her defense, contending that the shooting of her husband was an accident. of Pleasanton, editor of North American Pylon, a magazine that reports on the sport, adding that friendships broke up over the issue. "Everyone has picked sides," says John Kelly Jr. THE DEATH OF LARRY PARK left a bitterly divided community of family and friends on both sides of the Atlantic. If she wins her appeal and is allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter, her sentence could be reduced to nine years, and she could be out of jail within a year or two. Today, she sits in a California prison cell in Chowchilla while she awaits a federal judge's decision as to whether her appeal of her second-degree murder conviction will be heard. A year after the shooting, Pati Park was convicted of second-degree murder with the special circumstance of the use of a firearm and sentenced to a term of 18 years to life. It led, eventually, to a mansion in the South Bay hills, a thriving Corvette dealership and the heady fame of national autocross racing championships. What is known is that the death of 45-year-old Larry Park at the hands of his wife of 24 years ended a storybook journey that began for him as a millworker's son in the Northern California foothills near the Oregon border, and for her in a Scottish slum. The truth behind Larry Park's shooting death-pre-planned malice, spontaneous act of passion or tragic accident-is still unsolved in the minds of many who knew the couple. Workers in the showroom outside heard Larry Park shout out what would prove to be the final words of his life, "You shot me, you bitch!" When they rushed into the office they found a hysterical Pati holding the gun by the muzzle and sobbing, "Make sure Larry's OK." Larry was slumped on the floor, holding his side. ON A BREAK-HEART HOT VALLEY DAY in July of 1994, Pati Park put her dog, Suds, under one arm, gathered her purse and a bag of shirts in another, walked into the office of the California Corvette dealership in Milpitas, held a brief conversation with her husband, Larry, behind closed doors, and then fired a. Then she got a gun.Ī tale of love gone wrong-dead wrong-in the breakneck world of fast cars and fast women. When Corvette dealer and race car driver Larry Park found a girlfriend almost half his age, wife Pati Park got upset. Others see her as a cold-blooded murderer. Metroactive Features | Pati and Larry Parkīlood Sports: Many in the California autocross racing community have rallied in defense of Pati Park (pictured to the left in this composite photo), who claims the 1994 shooting of husband Larry (right) was an accident.
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