The state/region in brief

Explosives seized at Mabelvale home

A stick of military-grade dynamite, 14 pounds of other explosives and two guns were seized Wednesday when 30 law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at 8020 Bunch Road in Mabelvale that resulted in the arrest of resident Michael S. Parker.

Parker, 52, was arraigned Thursday in the Little Rock courtroom of U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Ray on a federal complaint charging him with being a felon in possession of firearms and explosive material.

Chris Thyer, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced the seizure and arrest Thursday evening, noting that his office will ask a federal grand jury to indict Parker during its next meeting in early October.

Along with the dynamite, a .12-gauge shotgun and a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, officers seized 14 one-pound high-explosive slurries, Thyer said.

He described a slurry as a commercially available allpurpose, weather-resistant emulsion explosive.

“Just one pound of slurry could destroy a vehicle and everyone in it,” he said “The potential damage from the explosion of 14 of these would have been devastating.”

According to the complaint, the dynamite was hidden in a box under a mobile home on the property, and the other explosives were found in an area behind Parker’s “studio.” - ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Wife gets life in prison for murder

A Lake Village woman was sentenced to life in prison last week after a jury convicted her of killing her husband, 10th Judicial Prosecuting Attorney Thomas Deen said Thursday.

Kathy Livingston, 59, was initially charged with capital murder, but the jury instead convicted her of first-degree murder on Sept. 13, Deen said.

Kathy Livingston’s husband, Bobby Livingston, 58, died on June 18, 2011 - the day before Father’s Day - after being shot twice by a 9mm handgun, Deen said.

He was struck in the palm of his hand and in his chest.

Ashley County Circuit Judge Sam Pope heard the case.

Livingston’s attorney, Toney Brasuell of Little Rock, said Thursday that his client was “devastated after the verdict.”

Brasuell said Bobby Livingston had been trying to get his wife into an alcohol rehabilitation program in the weeks before his death.

“It’s well known that she liked to walk around with a loaded gun when she drank,” Livingston said. “But she had no memory of what happened that night.”

The state argued that Kathy Livingston was of sound mind and that because she is a nurse, she knew exactly where to place the gun on her husband’s chest to inflict deadly force, Deen said.

After Bobby Livingston was shot, Brasuell said, Kathy Livingston turned the gun on herself, firing one bullet into her chest.

After she was discovered, she spent more than a week recovering in the hospital.

Brasuell said he had hoped for a lesser charge against his client.

  • ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Police say man

attacked 3 boys

CARAWAY - A man who authorities suspect was on drugs attacked three third-graders in a classroom at a northeast Arkansas school his daughter attends, police said Friday.

There wasn’t a teacher in the classroom when Michael Stayton, 47, of Caraway attacked the boys, ages 8, 9 and 10, police officer Kevin Tucker said.

Authorities suspect Stayton was under the influence of methamphetamine when he grabbed one of the boys by the throat at Riverside East Elementary School on Tuesday, Tucker said. One boy’s parents said he has a broken bone, Tucker said.

Stayton was arrested on charges of terroristic threatening, battery and false imprisonment, according to court documents. He was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 bond and is due back in court Tuesday, Tucker said.

Stayton has denied the allegations and claimed he was just playing with the children, Tucker said.

He was appointed a public defender, but the office said Friday that an attorney hadn’t been assigned to his case.

Tuesday’s attacks came after Stayton supposedly visited his daughter at school around lunchtime.

One boy told police that Stayton entered the classroom he was in and pushed him, Tucker wrote in a police report. One of the boys also said Stayton grabbed him by the throat and asked, “What are you doing here?

You should be in heaven,” according to the police report.

Riverside School District Superintendent Tommy Knight said he met with the parents of the boys. He said the schools are reviewing their security policies.

“We’re trying to make sure it never happens again,” Knight said.

  • ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 09/22/2012

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