HOT SPRINGS -- A Hot Springs Village man was arrested early Thursday in Little Rock in the stabbing death of a Jacksonville man whose body was found inside the suspect's house Tuesday evening.
Brent Michael Hile, 29, was reportedly taken into custody at the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock and was returned to Hot Springs, where he was booked about 1:30 a.m. on a charge of first-degree murder. The felony is punishable by up to life in prison.
Hile was held without bail. The victim was identified as William Scott Murry, 25, of Jacksonville.
According to the arrest affidavit, Garland County sheriff's investigators reported to an Alava Lane residence regarding a homicide and were met by Hot Springs Village Police Department investigators, who said they had found in the living room a white man who had died from what appeared to be stab wounds.
The only other person in the residence at the time was Wilma Hile, 61, of Cabot, the mother of the suspect.
She said her son, identified as Brent Hile, had called her at 2:44 a.m. Tuesday and had said that "Scott" was trying to kill him, according to the affidavit. She said she "played it off" and told her son his mind was "playing tricks" on him and to take his medication and go to bed, the affidavit states.
She said Brent Hile denied her claim, but she noted it that was not unusual that he would say those kinds of things, according to the affidavit. She said Brent Hile was begging her to call the police but that she refused to do so for fear of causing her son problems and that he hung up on her, the affidavit states.
She said her son called her back later and told her that he didn't know where he was and was trying to make it back home, the affidavit said. When he finally made it home, she noted that he seemed afraid to go inside because he "heard music" and knew "Scott" was in the house, the affidavit states.
She said she spoke to her son again about 6:30 a.m., and he told her he was on Arkansas 5 and again claimed "Scott" was trying to kill him, the affidavit said. She told him to go to her residence in Cabot to get his medication and "get some sleep."
She said that when she arrived home later that morning, she could tell Brent Hile had not been there, according to the affidavit.
She received a text from her son between 12:15 and 1 p.m. Tuesday in which he wrote, "everything was OK," and that "she was just being paranoid," the affidavit said. She said she felt something was wrong, so she called Hile and noted he "appeared to be the opposite of the text" and was again claiming "Scott" was trying to kill him, the affidavit states.
He told her he had tried to get "Scott" to leave several times but was unsuccessful in doing so, the affidavit states.
Wilma Hile later arrived at the residence and found Murry dead, and then Brent Hile called her again. She said she told him "Scott" was dead, and "it appeared to her that Brent was in disbelief," the affidavit states.
She told him to come back to the residence, but he never returned, and she didn't hear from him again, the affidavit states.
After obtaining a search warrant, investigators examined the victim's body and noted he had numerous stab wounds, with some being "in the defensive nature," according to the affidavit. Investigators also located two knives near the body with what appeared to be dried blood on them.
Investigators also located a 12-gauge shotgun inside the crime scene area that appeared to have been fired at least two times, according to the affidavit. Investigators said it appeared that "some type of physical altercation had taken place."
Garland County Coroner Stuart Smedley said the victim had been dead for several hours "due to the stages the body was found in," the affidavit states.
The affidavit notes that investigators found a piece of mail in one of the bedrooms in Brent Hile's name that listed the address of the residence as his home.
Investigators obtained a search warrant for the current and past geographical locations of the cellphone used by Brent Hile and determined that the phone was located near his residence within the time frame of the estimated time of death, which was between 12 and 24 hours beforehand.
The affidavit did not indicate the relationship of Brent Hile and Murry. However, Hot Springs Village Police Chief Gary Adams told The Sentinel-Record earlier: "We feel the victim and the person of interest are well known to each other," and that the slaying wasn't "a random act."
Metro on 05/17/2014