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Son Charged In New Year's Eve Shooting Death

Tribune photo by JIM REED

Polk County Sheriff's Deputies search lake Ware in downtown Lakeland for the murder weapon used in a brutal shooting of 93-year-old Walter Farley.

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By VALERIE KALFRIN

vkalfrin@tampatrib.com

Published: January 3, 2009

Updated: 01/03/2009 06:44 pm

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Walter Farley

Robert Farley

LAKELAND - When 93-year-old Walter Farley was found shot dead in his home, his son's wife, Mary, asked Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd: "Are you going to do everything you can to find who killed my father-in-law?"

"I promised her I would," Judd said today, recalling the New Year's Day conversation.

The investigation took detectives to Orlando to question a group of magazine salesmen who had been in the neighborhood, then wound up closer to home. Today, the sheriff's office charged Mary's husband, Robert Farley, 63, with first-degree premeditated murder.

First thought to be killed during a home invasion, Walter Farley was shot four or five times by his son with a .38 caliber handgun, Judd said. Sheriff's office divers recovered the weapon today from Lake Wire, where Robert Farley said he had tossed it.

Farley is being held without bail at the Polk County Jail.

Neighbors said they were relieved that someone hadn't randomly targeted Walter Farley, who often puttered in his garage and knelt to work in his flower beds.

"We're just glad it's over," said Darlene Earls, 27. "I walk every night up and down the street, and I haven't been able to do that since this happened."

The Farleys had shared the house on Indian Heights Drive for about four years. On New Year's Eve, Robert and Mary Farley left the elder Farley at home about 5 or 5:30 p.m. and headed to the Red Rose Inn in Plant City to celebrate. Once there, Mary took prescription medication and fell asleep. Robert returned to the Farley home about 6:30 or 7 p.m., Judd said.

Farley told investigators he informed his father he was going to leave Mary because she was ill and would require a wheelchair. The two fought and shots were fired, Judd said.

Judd said he doesn't believe Farley's explanation of the argument.

Afterward, Farley rummaged through the house and took some items to make it look as if there had been a home invasion, Judd said.

He then returned to the Red Rose Inn, where he and his wife -- who investigators think was unaware of what had occurred -- "had a wonderful evening of dinner and ballroom dancing," Judd said.

The next morning after breakfast, the couple returned to the Lakeland home, where Robert Farley found his father dead and called 911.

Mary Farley "was mourning in the street," Darlene Earls recalled. "She knelt down, and he [Robert Farley] was patting her on the back."

Investigators soon discovered Robert Farley's original account of his evening was flawed.

Farley told detectives that while Mary Farley was asleep, he left the inn for about a half hour, driving south toward Plant City to find a place to eat breakfast on New Year's Day. Security cameras from the inn, however, showed Farley drove north and was gone an hour and 36 minutes, Judd said.

Just before Farley's arrest today, he and his wife returned home from a nearby hotel. Judd said a distraught Mary jumped out of the van and ran to a neighbor's house, where detectives overheard her say something like, "He told me everything. He killed him."

Darlene Earls said that's still tough for her to reconcile.

She said of Robert, "That nice old man says hello to me. When I'd leave for work in the morning, he'd be standing out there smoking a cigarette."

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