The state/region in brief

I-40 crash victim is identified

BISCOE - Arkansas State Police have identified a woman killed in a multivehicle wreck on Interstate 40 that disrupted traffic in both directions for hours.

The wreck happened about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday near Biscoe in Prairie County, according to state police. A preliminary report said 33-year-old Kristin Jackson of Fayetteville was a passenger in a car that stopped behind a tractor-trailer that had also stopped for construction. A third vehicle didn’t stop and crashed into Jackson’s car, which was pushed into the trailer.

Jackson was killed in the collision and the driver in her car was injured.

Both the eastbound and westbound lanes were closed for hours after the accident.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 2 murder counts:

Victim pregnant

POTEAU, Okla. - An Oklahoma man has been bound over for trial on two first-degree murder counts in the death of a pregnant woman.

A Le Flore County judge ruled Tuesday there was sufficient evidence for Christopher Kenyon Simpson to be tried in the deaths of 20-yearold Ka’Loni Flynn of Fort Smith and her fetus.

Prosecutors allege that Simpson shot Flynn after she told him that she was pregnant with his child. Simpson’s attorney Warren Gotcher argued that prosecutors shouldn’t be able to introduce cell-phone records that placed Simpson in the area where Flynn was found dead because authorities didn’thave a warrant.

But prosecutors said authorities searched Flynn’s cell-phone records, not Simpson’s, to get the information.

The Southwest Times Record reported that Simpson’s arraignment is set for Jan. 2.

-THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

20-year-old held in stabbing death

FORREST CITY - Authorities say a 20-year-old Forrest City man is being held in connection with a fatal stabbing.

Forrest City police said they arrested Kendrix Black on suspicion of second-degree murder in the weekend stabbing death of John Bey, 54. The Times-Herald reported that officers responded early Sunday to an altercation at a Forrest City home.

Police said Bey collapsed in the home’s kitchen after he was stabbed once. Emergency crews took Bey to Forrest City Medical Center, where he died about 1:30 a.m. Sunday.

Bey’s body was sent to the state Crime Laboratory.

Authorities said Black was arrested later Sunday.

He was being held without bail at the St. Francis County jail, and authorities did not know if he had an attorney.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESSFor double murder, 100 years in prison

CONWAY - A Jacksonville man was sentenced to 100 years in prison Monday in the beating deaths of two Vilonia cousins who were slain more than four years ago.

Troy Allen Crook, 33, of Jacksonville pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degreemurder and two counts of aggravated robbery as part of a negotiated plea, Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said.

Crook entered the plea before Judge Charles E. Clawson Jr. in Faulkner County Circuit Court. Crook originally was charged with capital murder, which is punishable in Arkansas by death or life in prison without parole. He had also faced less-serious offenses.

Crook’s co-defendant, Ronald Dean Charles, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in November 2011.

Crook and Charles were convicted of the April 9, 2008, murders of Bobby and Lonnie Brock of Vilonia. Hiland has said the motive for the slayings was a robbery.

Charles also was sentenced to life in prison in November 2011 in the slaying of Sandra Givens of White County. That sentence is to run concurrently with the two concurrent life sentences he got in Faulkner County.

  • ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Muscogee tribe says no to casino

BROKEN ARROW, Okla.

  • Tribal council members with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation have voted against taking over a Broken Arrow casino initially set up by the Kialegee Tribal Town.

Council members voted 7-2 against the proposal Tuesday night. Officials said that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation would have received 70 percent of profits from the Red Clay Casino had the council agreed to the proposal.

Developers had hoped to finish work on the casino and sell it to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

A federal judge stopped work earlier this year at the casino site, finding that Kialegee Tribal Town did not have jurisdiction to build the casino on the land in Broken Arrow.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Inspection passed with flying colors

The Arkansas National Guard’s 189th Airlift Wing on Tuesday received an “excellent” rating in its quadrennial Consolidated Unit Inspection.

The week-long inspection looked at all aspects of the wing’s operations and was conducted by 80 inspectors from the Air Force Air Education and Training Command Inspector General’s Office, the Air Force Inspection Agency and the Air National Guard Logistics Compliance and Assessment Program staff.

Comprehensive inspections of Air Force wings are done every four years.

The 189th, with headquarters at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville, has a full-time mission of training C-130 pilots, navigators, flight engineers and loadmasters as instructors.

The inspection looked at everything from the wing’s compliance with Air Force procedures to operations in the medical, support and maintenance groups.

The 189th trained more than 300 students last year.

In addition to the training mission at the base, the wing also has more than 400 deployable airmen.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 12/13/2012

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