In the quiet city of Loveland, Colorado, a young man's life was tragically cut short in a brutal act of violence that shattered the community's sense of security. Anthony Taitt, a 21-year-old male and a sophomore at Colorado State University, was working as a convenience store clerk on the evening of October 16, 1981. His shift turned deadly when he was murdered during a robbery, a victim of a crime spree that spanned multiple states.
The man responsible for Anthony's death was Marion
Albert Pruett, a serial killer with a chilling history. What made the case even more disturbing was the fact that Pruett was under a new identity, Charles 'Sonny' Pearson, provided to him by the United States Federal Witness Protection Program. He had been placed in the program after testifying about a prison slaying in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1979. However, instead of leaving his criminal past behind, Pruett embarked on a violent rampage.
On the same day he murdered Anthony Taitt, Pruett had already killed another convenience store clerk, Bobbie Jean Robertson, in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Less than an hour after taking Anthony's life, Pruett struck again in Loveland, robbing another convenience store and shooting James Balderson in the head. His wave of terror also included the murder of his common-law wife, Pamela Sue Barker, in New Mexico earlier that year, and a series of bank robberies and murders across six states.
Pruett was eventually captured, and the full extent of his horrific crimes came to light. For the murders of Anthony Taitt and James Balderson in Colorado, he received two life sentences. His reign of terror led to further convictions and death sentences in other states for the murders of Peggy Lowe in Mississippi and Bobbie Jean Robertson in Arkansas. He also received a third life sentence for the murder of his wife in New Mexico. After years of appeals, Marion Albert Pruett was executed on April 12, 1999, bringing a final, grim chapter to a story of a flawed witness protection placement and the senseless loss of innocent lives, including that of a young university student working a late-night shift in Loveland.
