The state/region in brief

SAU student gets

20 years: Shot 3

MAGNOLIA - Quinton Xavier Hagan, 23, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced to 20 years in the Arkansas Department of Correction on Thursday in Columbia County Circuit Court, after pleading guilty to one count first-degree battery, amended down from the original charge of five counts attempted first-degree murder.

Deputy Prosecutor David Butler said that on Feb. 5, 2012, Hagan was at a party at the PNC Club in Columbia County, and fired a gun that injured someone. Hagan was a student at Southern Arkansas University at the time.

According to information in the order, on Feb. 5, 2012, the Columbia County sheriff’s office responded to a call concerning shots being fired during a party. Three individuals were shot during this incident, which resulted in charges being filed for five counts of attempted murder.

  • ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Wife tried to kill spouse, police say

An Austin woman was held in the Lonoke County jail without bail after authorities said she killed a dog and attempted to kill her husband.

Kelley Kelley, 58, is charged with criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder and aggravated cruelty to animals.

A news release issued Monday from the Lonoke County sheriff’s office said that about 5 p.m. Saturday, Kelley told her 73-year-old husband: “I killed the dog, and I just killed you; you should go to the hospital.”

The release said Kelley then drove her husband to the emergency room, where he told officials that his wife had tried to kill him.

Kelley admitted to giving her husband an overdose of prescription medication and to killing a Boston terrier, which she left in the bathtub of their home, according to the release.

  • ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Mine site in mind for sports complex

HOT SPRINGS - A former vanadium mine site under consideration for a regional sports complex is “almost too good to be true,” the author of the complex’s original feasibility study said.

“It’s amazing just how conducive it is for the concept plan that we originally came up with, and that’s currently being put into a master plan,” said DamonCobb of SOI Group Inc.

The Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission in March entered into a memorandum of understanding with Umetco Minerals Corp./Dow Chemical to “look at potential options and opportunities” for locating the Hot Springs Regional Sports Complex on portions of a 500-acre vanadium mine site being reclaimed at 271 Indian Springs Road.

Dunaway Associates LP of Fort Smith, which conducted a feasibility study on potential sites, is under contract to provide a master plan on the Umetco site.

  • ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTENo death sentence

sought in hit case

JONESBORO - A prosecutor said he won’t seek the death penalty for a northeast Arkansas woman charged in a plot to kill her husband.

Prosecutor Scott Ellington said Tuesday that he won’t pursue possible execution for Michelle Despain.

Ellington’s announcement comes after he said he spoke with the parents of Despain’s late husband, Marc Despain.

Prosecutors said Michelle Despain hired a man to kill her husband, who was shot to death in the couple’s home in August 2011. Three other people charged in the case have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced to prison.

Michelle Despain’s lawyer didn’t immediately return a phone call Tuesday.

She was previously set to go on trial this month, but that proceeding has been delayed. Ellington said a judge hasn’t set a new trial date yet.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESSMental exam first, says circuit judge

HARRISBURG - Results of a mental evaluation have to be submitted before a man accused of killing two people at a Trumann mobile home can be put on trial.

Prosecutors have charged 28-year-old Anthony Arnoult of Jonesboro with capital murder in the homicides of John Poff and Constance “Connie” Cole. They were found dead in August.

Circuit Judge David Laser asked for the mental evaluation in March.

Trial is set for Sept. 9 in Poinsett County. Prosecutor Scott Ellington is seeking the death penalty.

Officials said the Arkansas State Hospital in Little Rock is still working on the mental evaluation.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 10 on 06/26/2013

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