2 arrested in shooting of Logan County man

Two men were held in the Polk County jail Monday awaiting arraignment May 1 in Logan County Circuit Court on charges surrounding the shooting death of a rural Booneville man.

Court records show that Nick Charles Stoicu III, 39, and Joseph Oliah Hals Brown, 32, both of Mena, have been charged in Circuit Court in Booneville with first-degree murder, aggravated robbery and being felons in possession of firearms.

They also are being charged as habitual criminals, having been convicted previously of one to four felonies, according to the criminal complaints filed Friday by Prosecuting Attorney Tom Tatum II.

Stoicu and Brown were arrested earlier this month in Polk County on unrelated charges and were investigated by the Logan County sheriff's office as persons of interest in the death of Ritchie Lee Lynch, 60, Logan County Sheriff Boyd Hicks said. He said Monday that more people could be arrested in the case on lesser charges.

He said the investigation into Lynch's death was continuing. With assistance from the Arkansas State Police, the sheriff's office was investigating at locations in Logan, Scott, Polk, Sevier and Howard counties. Suspects and others moved through the counties and left evidence at different places that has to be processed and collected, Hicks said.

Authorities were alerted to Lynch's death on the morning of April 6, when Terry Bollinger called and reported that his friend Lynch was dead outside his home at 1575 Glover Daniels Road, north of Booneville, according to an arrest warrant affidavit by state police investigator Corey Mendenhall.

Tatum said earlier that Lynch's family had been worried because they had not been able to contact him for days.

A state medical examiner's office autopsy determined that Lynch died from five gunshot wounds.

Mendenhall's affidavit contained interviews with three people. One of them, Robert Allen Lee Melton, 51, of Waldron, said Brown and Stoicu picked him up at his home on the evening of April 2. Also in the maroon SUV were two women identified as Teresa Lynn Bennett and Dave Ann Townsend, who Mendenhall also interviewed.

The five were on their way to Lynch's home to rob him of drugs and money, Melton told Mendenhall in the affidavit.

Melton said that Bennett showed Brown, who was driving, where Lynch lived. After driving by the driveway, they stopped at a clearing off another road. Bennett told the men that if they walked down through the clearing, they would come to Lynch's property.

Brown, Stoicu and Melton took off walking while Bennett and Townsend stayed in the vehicle, the affidavit said.

According to the affidavit, Melton said he stood watch at the gate to Lynch's property while Brown, armed with a pistol, and Stoicu, armed with a rifle, continued on to Lynch's home.

About 10 minutes later, Melton told Mendenhall, he heard shouting and about four gunshots.

The two men returned to Melton and told him they both shot Lynch and left him lying there, according to the affidavit. One of the men carried a black bag, the contents of which were not identified in the affidavit.

"Bennett stated that when the guys returned to the SUV, Stoicu told them it was done and it went bad," the affidavit said.

Back at Melton's home in Waldron, Melton told Mendenhall, Brown and Stoicu disassembled the guns. The men also offered Melton $800 and 17 grams of methamphetamine, but he refused, he told Mendenhall.

Some of the gun parts were recovered from the SUV, Mendenhall's affidavit said. The gun parts and bullet casings found at the scene were sent to the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock for analysis.

NW News on 04/21/2015

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