Jurors convicted Terry Parker after testimony described a luring plot, a shooting and a failed cover-up.

TOWANDA, Pa. — A Bradford County judge sentenced Terry Lynn Parker to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of killing Michael Pruitt, whose body prosecutors said was driven across Pennsylvania, dismembered and burned after the March 2024 shooting.

The sentence closed the central case against Parker, 48, of Harrisburg, after a four-day trial that turned on testimony from two women tied to him and a chain of evidence found at a rural Springfield Township home. Jurors convicted him of first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence after deliberating for less than 35 minutes. Judge Evan S. Williams III imposed life in prison without the possibility of parole immediately after the verdict.

Prosecutors said Parker and his estranged wife, Ronda Parker, drew Pruitt from North Carolina to her home in Columbia Crossroads in early March 2024. Pruitt, 40, had been trying to find work, reconnect with his children and rebuild his life, according to testimony described by the Bradford County District Attorney’s Office. He was painting inside the home when Parker arrived on March 8. District Attorney Richard Wilson said Parker killed Pruitt because he saw him as a rival inside his family. “Terry Parker could not tolerate that loss of control,” Wilson said after the conviction.

The trial record described a killing that began before Parker entered the house. Prosecutors said he drove from Harrisburg to Bradford County armed with a pistol and brass knuckles, then parked in a wooded area near the residence so he would not be seen. He approached the home around dusk and went inside. Testimony showed he shot Pruitt once in the chest after entering. Pruitt tried to flee down a hallway toward the master bedroom, where Ronda Parker was present with a two-year-old child in her arms. Prosecutors said Parker followed Pruitt and fired two more shots into his skull.

Parker admitted on the witness stand that he fired the shots, but he denied that the killing was planned murder. Under questioning from defense attorney C.J. Rotteveel, Parker said he “lost it” and said he reacted in the moment. Prosecutors asked jurors to judge that claim against the steps they said he took before and after the shooting. The commonwealth pointed to the trip from Harrisburg, the hidden parking spot, the weapons and the later destruction of evidence. Jurors rejected the defense theory in about half an hour and returned verdicts on all three counts.

After the shooting, prosecutors said Parker wrapped Pruitt’s body, removed it from the residence and placed it in the trunk of his car. He then drove back to Harrisburg and went to work as if nothing had happened. Over the next day, authorities said Parker and Ronda Parker drove with the body in the trunk while they ran errands and looked for a place to dispose of the remains. Investigators said children were in the car when the pair stopped for ice cream. The detail became one of the starkest points in the case because it placed ordinary family routines beside the concealed remains of a homicide victim.

Investigators said the cover-up widened when Parker recruited his girlfriend, Summer Heil, to help. Parker and Heil drove back toward Bradford County with Pruitt’s body still in the trunk. On the way, prosecutors said, they bought an ax and other supplies. At the Springfield Township property, Parker and Heil dismembered the body with the ax and burned remains in a firepit outside the home. Prosecutors said Ronda Parker cleaned blood from inside the residence. Troopers later found the firepit still smoldering and recovered human bones that forensic anthropologists helped identify as Pruitt’s remains.

Text messages cited in earlier court records gave investigators a view of the hours after the killing. Ronda Parker wrote that bleach was not enough because blood was “everywhere.” Terry Parker wrote that they needed clothes quickly because they smelled “like dead animal.” Other messages described body parts in bags, a tooth found on bedding and concern about blood in cracks near the floor. Prosecutors said the messages supported the tampering charge and showed the defendants knew they were trying to hide both the death and the condition of the house.

The case also turned on claims Parker raised about Pruitt. Parker said he believed Pruitt had sexually abused his children. Prosecutors said there was no evidence to support that allegation and framed it as a false justification for a killing rooted in jealousy, control and fear that Pruitt was replacing Parker as a father figure. Ronda Parker, who had been in a relationship with Pruitt, testified for the commonwealth. Heil also testified after reaching her own agreement with prosecutors. Their testimony helped place Parker at the home before the shooting and at the disposal scene afterward.

Ronda Parker later received a separate prison sentence for her role. She was sentenced May 11 to 15 to 40 years in state prison after pleading guilty to third-degree murder. Prosecutors said she knew for days that Terry Parker planned to kill Pruitt and helped draw Pruitt to her home without warning him. Heil pleaded guilty to hindering apprehension and received a prison term for helping conceal evidence and dispose of the body. Her sentence was added to other sentences she was already serving, making her total term three years and nine months to 14 years in prison.

The courtroom outcome left Parker facing the harshest penalty available for first-degree murder in Pennsylvania short of a death sentence. After the verdict, sheriff’s deputies escorted him from the courthouse while Pruitt’s killing remained the focus of separate punishment for the co-defendants. Bradford County officials described the prosecution as a case built through testimony, forensic recovery and the defendants’ own communications. The record now shows three people punished at different levels for one killing and the effort that followed to erase its traces.

Currently, Parker remains sentenced to life without parole. Ronda Parker is serving 15 to 40 years, and Heil is serving her combined prison term. The next phase rests with the state prison system and any post-sentence filings allowed under Pennsylvania law.

Author note: Last updated May 19, 2026.