Jury gets Richfield pawnshop murder case

Rosalyn McDonald-Richards doesn't dispute driving Calvin Anderson and Johnny Perry to the Richfield pawnshop where Perry killed a customer during a robbery in September 2008.

A Hennepin County jury on Friday got the task of deciding whether the 58-year-old grandmother from Fridley not only knew about their plan but also helped them plot the robbery that led to Malcolm Cowens' death.

Deliberations began following McDonald-Richards' weeklong murder trial, during which she contended she was trapped in an abusive relationship with Anderson, the robbery's alleged mastermind. She testified she had no idea of the pair's intentions when she dropped them off at Avi's Pawn & Jewelry, 6414 Nicollet Av. S.

Prosecutors contend that McDonald-Richards cased the store that morning and served as getaway driver. Although she wasn't in the store when Perry shot Cowens, a 33-year-old entrepreneur, and clerk Antonio Culpepper when they tried to flee, her role in planning the robbery makes her equally responsible, said Assistant County Attorney Judith Hawley. Culpepper survived.

"As someone who aided and abetted this crime, she's just as responsible as Johnny Perry, who pulled the trigger, and Calvin Anderson, who planned the whole thing." Hawley said during closing arguments Friday.

All three were charged with first-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder. Perry, 31, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last year and received a 33-year sentence in exchange for testifying against his co-defendants. Anderson's case has not yet gone to trial.

McDonald-Richards initially insisted to police that Anderson, 47, took her car that day and that she had never met Perry. She later admitted dropping the pair at Avi's. She said that after emerging from the store the men frantically dove into the back seat and told her to drive. She said she learned what happened on the news.

Perry testified that he had used heroin and drunk alcohol before Anderson, a convicted bank robber on parole, convinced him to pull off the "lick." Two weeks before, he testified, the three robbed Diamonds and Gold International in Robbinsdale, with McDonald-Richards as driver.

Surveillance footage showed McDonald-Richards in Avi's the morning of the robbery. She explained that by saying she was considering pawning a ring Anderson had given her. She said she later told Anderson about a customer who was pawning about $4,000 in gold.

Later that night, she testified, Anderson asked her to go with him to pick up Perry and drive them to Avi's.

An alleged victim, not a killer

McDonald-Richards' attorney, Philip Leavenworth, contended that Perry had the incentive of a reduced prison sentence when he painted her and Anderson as "a latter-day Bonnie and Clyde."

"This is the kind of case where reasonable doubt resides," Leavenworth said. Given Anderson's cruelty and lies, he certainly could have tricked her into being their driver, Leavenworth said.

"Give it a try, at least once, to have perspective on what it would look like," he told the jury. "Remember Calvin Anderson. Remember the terror in her life."

Hawley countered that if the abuse really happened, McDonald-Richards had ample opportunities to leave. Domestic violence, if it occurred and as serious as it may be, "isn't a get-out-of-jail-free card," she said.

"She spins, she twists, she bobs, she weaves -- that's her story," Hawley argued. "And I suggest you don't believe a word that comes out of her mouth."