PB girl's strangler to serve 40 years

Justices voided ’08 trial verdict

A McGehee man whose 2008 conviction on kidnapping and capital-murder charges in the death of a Pine Bluff teenager was overturned by the Arkansas Supreme Court pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon to the same crime.

ADVERTISEMENT

More headlines

Kenneth Ray Osburn, 54, confessed to kidnapping and killing 17-year-old Casey Crowder in 2006, then dumping her body in a wooded area near Dumas.

Ashley County Circuit Judge Sam Pope presided over the plea hearing in his Hamburg courtroom. Ashley County Prosecuting Attorney Thomas Deen said the negotiated plea deal included sentencing Osburn to 30 years in the Arkansas Department of Correction for second-degree murder and 10 years for kidnapping, to be served consecutively.

"I didn't care for the result," Deen said of the case's outcome, without elaborating.

A message left late Wednesday afternoon for Osburn's attorney, Jim Wyatt of Little Rock, was not returned.

The Supreme Court overturned Osburn's conviction in 2009, ruling that he had been interrogated after asking for an attorney and that his confession was the result of coercion. The court also ordered the case be returned to the circuit court to be tried again.

Authorities spent six days looking for Crowder -- a student at Watson Chapel High School in Pine Bluff -- after her vehicle was found abandoned along U.S. 65 south of Dumas in 2006.

They eventually found her body with a black zip tie around her neck in a wooded area east of Dumas.

Crowder had traveled from Pine Bluff to Desha County on Aug. 26, 2006, to spend the night with her boyfriend in Pickens, south of Dumas. She left for home the next morning in her Dodge Durango but ran out of gas on U.S. 65 a few miles down the road.

Osburn told police he picked up the teenager on Aug. 27, 2006, on U.S. 65 south of Dumas, offering to help her get gas for her vehicle. He told authorities that he took Crowder to a canal east of Dumas, put a plastic tie around her throat, tightened it and watched her walk into the woods while struggling to get it loose.

Authorities initially identified Osburn as a suspect after surveillance video from a Sonic drive-in showed his truck on U.S. 65 near the place and time where Crowder ran out of gas.

Authorities were able to see the white Chevrolet truck, which had a distinctive black stripe on its side, heading south on U.S. 65, then heading back north 2 minutes and 44 seconds later. A second business, the Dollar General store on U.S. 165, showed the same truck moments later heading toward the woods where authorities later found Crowder's body.

During the sentencing phase of the 2008 trial, Crowder's mother, Melinda Crowder, testified that "all [Osburn] had to do was push her out of the truck, and she would still be here with us. But you chose to put a plastic tie around her neck and watch her suffer and die.

"Ever since my children were born, I've told them that I love them more than anything in this world. Now I have to love one more than anything outside this world."

Melinda Crowder told jurors during that trial in Hamburg that her daughter liked to hunt, fish, sing and go on church missions. She showed jurors pictures of the blond, green-eyed girl in Las Vegas and at church camp, as well as a photo of her taken her senior year at Watson Chapel High School, just days before she disappeared.

In a January 2008 interview, Melinda Crowder said she felt "like somebody reached inside my chest and is squeezing my heart. We miss her so much."

Melinda Crowder described her daughter as a "spitfire" and a "little cocky," and someone who wouldn't back down in a quarrel.

Lynn Taylor, minister at First Christian Church in Pine Bluff, where the Crowder family worships, said the ordeal of the trial and ensuing appeals "has taken a hard emotional toll on them."

Taylor, who is serving as the church's interim minister, said he did not know Casey Crowder but has counseled her family members during their time of grief. Crowder often sang solos in the church choir, and a Casey Crowder Youth Fellowship Fund was created for youth activities after her death.

"It's been a tough journey, and I hope that now the case is finally resolved they can find some peace," Taylor said. "This is a very positive development that has taken place."

A section on 06/19/2014

Upcoming Events