Killing man, 90, gets teen 92 years
PARAGOULD - The second defendant charged in the death of a 90-year-old man during a 2012 burglary pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Wednesday, Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington said in a news release.
Lavell Branch-Griffin, 19, of Paragould entered guilty pleas in Greene County Circuit Court to two counts of aggravated robbery and two counts of residential burglary.
Circuit Judge Randy Philhours sentenced Branch-Griffin to 92 years in the Arkansas Department of Correction.
His co-defendant, Rashon Webb, 19, of Jonesboro, pleaded guilty to the same counts as Branch-Griffin on Aug. 28. Webb was also sentenced to 92 years in prison.
Police accused the two of breaking into Clinton Mason’s East Court Street home near downtown Paragould on Nov. 20, 2012. The two shot Mason, authorities said. He died later at Arkansas Methodist Medical Center in Paragould.
Police said Branch-Griffin and Webb also assaulted Karen Alsobrooks during the break-in at Mason’s home and robbed another Paragould home about six hours before they shot Mason.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTEBus crash hurts 6 students, trucker
ATKINS - Seven people, mostly Atkins public school students, suffered noncritical injuries in a three-vehicle wreck in Pope County on Wednesday, an Arkansas State Police spokesman said.
Troopers were called to the accident involving an Atkins School District bus on Arkansas 64 about 3:30 p.m., just 3 miles from downtown Atkins, state police spokesman Bill Sadler said.
The school bus was stopped in the westbound lane to allow students to get off when a westbound log truck struck a pumper truck stopped behind the bus, he said.
The crash caused the pumper truck to rear-end the school bus, injuring six students and the pumper truck’s driver, the state police said. The injured were taken to a Russellville hospital.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTEFisherman’s body
pulled from river
A fisherman was found dead early Wednesday after he fell from a boat the day before, according to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
A commercial fisherman found the body of Chase Herring, 22, about 1 mile below the David D. Terry Lock and Dam, 5 miles southeast of Little Rock, commission spokesman Keith Stephens said.
About 7:25 a.m. Tuesday, Pulaski County sheriff’s deputies were called to the Arkansas River near the dam, where Herring and CalebWalker, 21, had been fishing in a bass boat, deputies said.
Walker told authorities a fishing pole was about to fall out of the boat, so he got up to grab it, Stephens said.
When Walker stood up, he and Herring were flipped into the water, he said.
Walker told authorities that he spotted Herring “floating on his back” and headed toward the shore, deputies said. But the current forced Walker downstream toward the western riverbank, and he could no longer see his friend, deputies said.
The commission, the sheriff’s office, Little Rock authorities and the Arkansas State Police helped search for Herring until about 10 p.m. Tuesday, Stephens said.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTEPolice arrest man in rape, stabbing
A Sherwood man is facing a charge of criminal attempt to commit capital murder and other felony offenses after police said he broke into a woman’s home, raped her and stabbed her several times Aug. 30, Sherwood police said Tuesday.
Thaddeus Collier, 40, was arrested at his home and charged with criminal attempt to commit capital murder, rape, residential burglary, five counts of first-degree terroristic threatening and possession of a firearm by certain persons. He was taken to the Pulaski County jail, where he was being held in lieu of a $100,000 bond.
Just after 5 a.m. Aug. 30, a man broke into the woman’s home on Ridgelea Avenue, placed duct tape over the woman’s mouth and raped her as he held a knife with a black handle to her throat, according to the police report. The man threatened to kill the woman’s mother and children if she didn’t stay quiet, the woman told police.
Sherwood officers were called to the woman’s home shortly before 9 a.m. The unidentified woman, who named her attacker as a man she knew as “Thad Lewis,” was treated and released at an area hospital, police said.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTEMan rejects plea in gasoline killing
POTEAU, Okla. - A man accused of killing his girlfriend by setting her on fire has turned down a proposed plea agreement offered by prosecutors in LeFlore County.
Trial for 30-year-old Donnie Lee Harris Jr. of Talihina is set for Sept. 16 in the death last year of 25-year-old Kristi Ferguson of Pocola.
The Southwest Times Record reported that prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Prosecutors said Harris threw gasoline on Ferguson the night of Feb. 18, 2012, then set her on fire. An autopsy report says Ferguson suffered second- and third-degree burns over most of her body and died of pneumonia on March 9, 2012.
At a Wednesday hearing, Harris said he would go to trial rather than plead guilty and accept a sentence of life without parole.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 09/06/2013