PARIS — Robert James was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday after a Logan County Circuit Court jury convicted him of first-degree murder in the August 2008 shooting death of his wife's boyfriend.
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for one hour before returning with the guilty verdict. Circuit Judge Jerry Don Ramey sentenced James after jurors deliberated for another 80 minutes to decide on life in prison.
The trial for James, 61, of Paris began Thursday in the Aug. 8, 2008, shooting death of 40-year-old Tony Rice, who was gunned down in the parking lot of the Paris Wal-Mart.
Deputy Medical Examiner Daniel Konzelmann testified Tuesday that a bullet struck Rice in the right side of his jaw and nearly severed his spinal cord before exiting from the back of his neck.
During the trial's penalty phase, Deputy ProsecutorJohn Riedel read a letter from Rice's parents, James and Patsy Rice.
In it, Rice's parents said their only child was soft spoken, friendly and always willing to help others. All his life, people turned to him when they had problems.
"No telling how many problems he took to his grave," the letter stated.
Two eyewitnesses said James killed Rice, Riedel told jurors in his closing arguments.The question to prove firstdegree murder was whether James acted purposely, he told jurors.
Riedel reminded jurors that James was angry at Rice because he was having an affair with James' wife, Heather Balasco.
He said James drove with purpose to the Wal-Mart parking lot, blocked Rice's pickup and got out of his pickup with a loaded gun to kill Rice.
The defense emphasized that James was emotionally distraught about his wife's affair and what it was doing to the family's life. He was so distraught that he turned toviolence, defense attorney John Irwin of Morrilton said.
"There were three people involved in an adulterous affair and that led to his killing," Irwin said.
Irwin argued that James' emotional distress made manslaughter an appropriate charge. Manslaughter differs from first-degree murder by the emotional state of the person doing the killing, he said.
The defense produced one witness Tuesday, Bonnie Balasco of Scranton, Heath Balasco's stepmother.
Bonnie Balasco testified that she spoke often with James about the affair Heather was having with Rice and about the effect it was having on James and his adopted son, Michael, then 13.
She said James used to be a friendly, confident, happy person before the affair. But he changed emotionally after he found out about it. She said he became unpredictable and began blaming others, including her and her husband, for the affair.
At one point, Balasco said, James told her that he wanted to "knock [Rice's] block off."
Called by prosecutors as a rebuttal witness, Balasco said that James' second marriage ended in divorce after his thenwife had an affair. She said there was no violence then.
Riedel reminded jurors of the remark James made when Logan County Sheriff Steve Smith drove up to James' home to arrest him after the shooting.
"I was tired of it," he said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 13, 18 on 09/30/2009