In June of 1983, in Louisville, Kentucky, a 22-year-old woman named Pamela Armstrong was found deceased in an alley near Beech Street. She had been shot in the head. For many years, the case remained unsolved, leaving her family with unanswered questions. Armstrong was a mother of five children.
More than two decades later, in 2004, the Louisville Metro Police Department's Cold Case Unit reopened Armstrong's case. Advances in technology allowed investigators to utilize DNA profiling.
Detectives were able to obtain a DNA sample from a man named Larry Lamont White from a cigar he discarded during a traffic stop. His DNA profile was a match to the DNA found on Armstrong's clothing. In 2007, White was charged with the murder and rape of Pamela Armstrong.
Larry Lamont White was no stranger to law enforcement. At the time he was charged with Armstrong's murder, he was already a convicted felon. He had been previously convicted for the murders of two other women in Louisville that occurred in the same summer of 1983. White had already served a 28-year sentence for those two murders.
In 2014, a jury found Larry Lamont White guilty of the rape and murder of Pamela Armstrong. Evidence from his previous murder convictions was presented during the trial to show a pattern of violent behavior. Following the guilty verdict, the jury recommended a sentence of death for the murder and twenty years for the rape. White was subsequently sentenced to death and is currently on death row in Kentucky. The Supreme Court has since ordered the Kentucky Supreme Court to review the death sentence due to White's claim of intellectual disability.
