Exam ordered for suspect in slaying
FORT SMITH -- A mental examination has been ordered for a Fort Smith man charged with capital murder in the shooting death of his former father-in-law.
Michael Ray Underwood is charged in the June 2013 shooting death of Michael Allen Shook, 63. Police said Shook was found dead in a bedroom of his home and Underwood was found in a chair with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in his head.
The Southwest Times Record reported that Sebastian County Circuit Court Judge James Cox ordered the mental exam at the request of prosecutors. Prosecutors asked for the exam after defense attorneys presented psychiatric and neuropsychological evaluations, including one that said Underwood is not and never will be competent to stand trial.
-- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Accidents kill 3 on state's roads
A Harrisburg woman died Tuesday morning after a one-vehicle crash in Cross County, the Arkansas State Police reported.
Lindsey Parker, 24, was driving west on Arkansas 42 in a 2013 Chevrolet Tahoe that veered onto the right shoulder of the roadway, struck the guardrail, overturned and rolled down a steep embankment, according to state police. The wreck occurred at 7:20 a.m.
State police reported that it was foggy, and the road was dry at the time.
Elsewhere in Cross County on Monday, a Wynne bicyclist died after being hit by a 2004 Dodge pickup, state police said.
Alicia Carlisle, 32, was riding a bicycle south on Airpark Road when she failed to yield to oncoming traffic on U.S. 64 and was hit by the truck, according to state police. Carlisle was transported to Crossbridge Community Hospital in Wynne, where she later died. The collision occurred about 2:10 p.m.
Conditions were clear and dry at the time, state police reported.
State police also reported Tuesday that a Hensley man died Friday in a Saline County collision.
Emery Crossland, 76, was driving east on Phillis Road in a 2004 Ford when he went through the intersection with U.S. 167 about 5:45 a.m., colliding with a southbound 1997 Chevrolet, state police said.
The driver of the Chevrolet, Billy Leray Weaver, 21, of Little Rock, was injured and transported to UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock.
State police reported that it was raining and foggy and that the road was wet at the time.
-- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
SAU trustee dies after operation
MAGNOLIA -- William "Bill" Stringfellow, chairman of the Southern Arkansas University board of trustees, died Tuesday after heart surgery.
Stringfellow, 81, a retired insurance executive and attorney from Little Rock, led the SAU Presidential Search Committee, spending many hours researching the position's applicant pool, said his wife, Betty Jo Stringfellow, through a Southern Arkansas University news release.
The Stringfellows have been longtime financial supporters of SAU.
Stringfellow, a native of Hampton, attended Southern State College, now SAU, from 1951-52 and served in the U.S. Air Force from 1953-57 before returning to Magnolia to complete a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1960. He earned a law degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville in 1973. In 1995, he earned an Education for Ministry degree from the University of the South School of Theology in Sewanee, Tenn.
Stringfellow received the Southern Arkansas University Distinguished Alumni award in 2007.
-- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Lockett execution documents sealed
TULSA -- A federal judge has ordered documents related to the botched execution of Clayton Lockett to remain sealed.
Attorneys for death row inmates filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot to unseal thousands of pages connected to the troubled April 29 lethal injection of Lockett.
The Tulsa World reported Friot ordered the Department of Public Safety in September to hand over the records produced during its investigation into Lockett's death but declined Monday to unseal them.
The inmates' lawsuit claims the state's execution process subjects inmates to cruel and unusual punishment and seeks a preliminary injunction. Four of the plaintiffs are scheduled to be executed next year.
-- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NW News on 12/11/2014