JONESBORO -- A Jonesboro police officer who fatally shot a machete-wielding man in April will not be charged with a crime, a Craighead County grand jury determined Friday.
The grand jury convened for two days and heard testimony from Arkansas State Police agents who investigated the April 14 shooting that killed Christopher Grant Finley, 31, before returning with a no true bill verdict.
"We went to the [grand jury] to help me make this decision," Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington said. "Justice has been found, and I've closed the case."
Ellington said he could not comment on the proceedings of the grand jury, the first convened in Craighead County since 1982.
Jonesboro patrol officer Heath Loggains shot Finley several times at his Walnut Street house after Finley hit Loggains in the arm with a machete. Loggains, an eight-year veteran of the police department, was treated for minor "blunt-force" injuries.
Police responded to Finley's home at 9 p.m. April 14 after receiving a complaint earlier in the night that Finley was screaming in his yard and holding a baseball bat.
They returned to the home at 11:30 p.m. to arrest him, and Finley went outside. He fled back into his house, and as Loggains tried to push open the door, Finley struck the officer with the weapon.
Loggains then fired several times through the door. Finley was later pronounced dead in his house.
In a letter to Lt. Brant Tosh, the commander of the Criminal Investigation Division of the state police office in Jonesboro, Ellington said special agent Mike Grimes and other state police officers testified at the grand jury Thursday and Friday.
"The grand jury returned no true bill," Ellington wrote to Tosh in the letter, obtained Friday through the state's Freedom of Information Act. "The file will be returned to the Arkansas State Police for permanent record."
In a brief statement Friday evening, Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott acknowledged the grand jury's decision.
"The [department] asked the Arkansas State Police to investigate the officer-involved shooting that occurred on April 14," Elliott said. "The department cooperated fully with that investigation and allowed the judicial process to work when the matter was put before the grand jury.
"We are satisfied with the outcome of that process."
State Desk on 05/23/2015