Suspect about to admit meth guilt found slain

Pocohontas man due in court for plea

Correction: Trisha Louise Mulligan, who pleaded guilty to a federal charge of possession of methamphetamine, is the wife of former Pocahontas Police Chief Chad Mulligan. Their last name was misspelled in this article.

One of two men who were expected to plead guilty Thursday in a federal methamphetamine case was found dead of a gunshot wound in his Pocahontas apartment Monday, authorities said Thursday.

The death of Travis Blaine Perkins, 34, is considered a homicide, according to an Associated Press article citing reports that police had ruled out the possibility of a self-inflicted injury. No arrests have been made, but state police said there are several “persons of interest” being looked at.

Perkins was one of eight defendants, including Trisha Louise Milligan, the wife of former Pocahontas PoliceChief Chad Milligan, and former Pocahontas lawyer Bob Sam Castleman, who were jointly indicted last year by a federal grand jury in a methamphetamine-possession and -manufacturing case dating back to 2008.

On April 3, Trisha Milligan, 48, and Elaine Marie Swann, who worked together as secretaries at the Throesch Law Firm in Pocahontas, pleaded guilty to negotiated charges of possessing less than 50 grams of a methamphetamine mixture in 2011. They admitted that on several occasions, they retrieved quantities of the drug from under a green disk in the law firm’s garden after Perkins placed it there.

Video surveillance recorded the women leaving cash and picking up the drugs and also recorded Perkins leaving the drugs and picking up the cash, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Gardner told the judge during the plea hearing.

Rebecca Lucille Spray, another of the eight defendants in the case, admitted that same day to conspiring in 2011 to possess chemicals and equipment to manufacture methamphetamine in 2011.

At the time of the of the women’s guilty pleas, additional plea-change hearings were scheduled for Thursday for Perkins, Randall Wayne Byrd, who manages the apartment building where Perkins lived, and Thomas Thorn Watson. Watson’s attorney later postponed his plea hearing, citing a scheduling conflict, and Watson’s plea has not yet been rescheduled.

Aside from Watson, that leaves only Castleman, of Imboden, and his son, Robert Jerrod Castleman, to face a federal jury trial scheduled to begin April 29.

All face a charge of conspiring to manufacture methamphetamine, and the Castlemans each face two additional charges.

Byrd, 53, pleaded guilty Thursday before U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes to a charge of maintaining a drug premises, admitting that from 2009 through Feb. 7, 2012, when he managed the apartment building, he knowingly allowed drug activity to go on there.

Gardner, the assistant U.S. attorney, told the judge that on May 9, 2011, a search warrant was executed at Perkins’ apartment and a small amount of methamphetamine, residue and paraphernalia were found.She said Perkins had been using and distributing methamphetamine in the apartment and Byrd had used the drug with Perkins in the apartment.

Byrd agreed that he had used the drug with Perkins and knew Perkins had the drug in the apartment, but said he didn’t know Perkins was a meth distributor.

Holmes allowed Byrd to remain free until sentencing, under the same conditions he has already been under since his indictment. The judge cited a concern that Byrd’s health could be endangered if he were held as a federal prisoner in local jails that aren’t equipped to treat his medical problems, which include diabetes.

Holmes agreed with Byrd’s attorney, Ron Davis of Little Rock, that Byrd is not considered a flight risk or a danger to the community. Also, although Byrd’s offense is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, Davis said he has roughly calculated Byrd’s penalty range under federal sentencing guidelines to be between 24 and 30 months, lessening the court’s responsibility to detain him until his sentencing date.

After the plea hearing, Byrd expressed disbelief that Perkins, who he said was a “nice guy,” had been shot to death. Prosecutors confirmed Thursday that both state and federal authorities are investigating the shooting death.

In 2004, the Castlemans were convicted in federal court in Little Rock of mailing a live copperhead snake to a man they said had shot at the younger Castleman’s vehicle while he, with his girlfriend as a passenger, drove through the man’s yard. The father’s and son’s guilty pleas during the trial and before a jury could decide their fate resulted in prison sentences for both. It also cost Bob Sam Castleman his law license of 25 years.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/19/2013

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