VAN BUREN -- One defendant is expected to testify against the other in a Crawford County capital murder case scheduled for early June.
Marc McCune, Crawford County prosecutor, announced Monday he expects Jonathan Bridgewater to plead guilty to an unspecified charge after he testifies against Nicholas Barrows in the June 24 shooting death of Jamison Plum, 24, of Alma.
During a court appearance Monday, Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell set Barrows' trial for the week of June 1 or June 8. Cottrell also granted a motion by the state to separate Bridgewater's case from Barrows'.
Bridgewater and Barrows are charged with capital murder in Plum's death. Plum's decomposing body was found in a shallow grave on property where Barrows and Bridgewater lived near Rudy. The two men are half brothers.
McCune hasn't announced whether he will seek the death penalty against Barrows, court records showed.
Prosecutors say Barrows shot Plum because Barrows accused Plum of raping his girlfriend. Authorities say Bridgewater buried the body in a shallow grave on the property.
A girlfriend of Bridgewater, Elizabeth Henry, reported the shooting to the Crawford County Sheriff's Office, which led to finding Plum's body and the arrest of Barrows and Bridgewater.
Affidavits and reports by the Sheriff's Office said Henry reported Bridgewater had taken her into the woods on the property where he lived, asked her if she had ever seen a dead body and showed her Plum's body lying under a tarp.
Henry told deputies a few hours before, she heard a gunshot, screams and another gunshot. Minutes later, she saw Barrows emerge from the woods carrying a shotgun, she said.
According to an affidavit, Henry told deputies Bridgewater later told her he was digging a hole to bury a body but the leg was sticking out. He'd have to break it off and burn it, Bridgewater told her.
Plum's family had reported to the Sheriff's Office he had been missing for a week, according to reports. The family reported he was friends with Barrows and Bridgewater but they had been fighting over a girlfriend, and the family was concerned something could have happened to him.
As the sheriff's Special Weapons and Tactics unit was en route to arrest the two men, members spotted them along a highway near Rudy where their vehicle had run out of gas and took them into custody.
In addition to the capital murder charge, Barrows is charged with possession of a bomb. According to sheriff's reports, deputies found three pipe bombs in Barrows' room.
NW News on 05/12/2015