FORT SMITH -- A Fort Smith man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the shooting death in January of another man, according to Sebastian County Circuit Court records.
Johnathan Ray Willbourn, 33, also pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm for which Circuit Judge Stephen Tabor sentenced him, according to a plea agreement with the state, to 10 years in prison. The sentences are to be served concurrently and Willbourn was given credit for the more than seven months he spent in jail before his plea.
Willbourn originally was charged with first-degree murder and terroristic act along with being a felon in possession of a firearm in the Jan. 25 shooting of Robert Snider, 28, at Willbourn's home at 3506 Price Circle.
Willbourn was scheduled to go on trial on the charges on Tuesday, but the state asked for and was granted a delay. His trial was rescheduled for Nov. 3 before Willbourn accepted the plea agreement with the state.
According to police reports, Snider and his fiancee Neandra Mayo-Beaver were visiting Willbourn's wife, Niki, on the evening of Jan. 25 while Johnathan Willbourn slept. They were drinking and Snider became loud, waking Willbourn.
Niki Willbourn told police that Snider was being verbally abusive to Mayo-Beaver in the front yard and she asked her husband to make sure nothing happened to Mayo-Beaver.
Johnathan Willbourn went outside with a gun, Niki Willbourn told police, and she heard three or four gunshots. Her husband then hurried inside, told his wife he had to leave and drove away.
Police responding to reports of shots being fired found Snider lying in the Willbourns' front yard with gunshot wounds in his abdomen and shoulder. Willbourn later was arrested at a relative's home in Mountainburg.
NW News on 09/06/2014