Hot Springs lawyer gets probation in plea deal

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/RICK MCFARLAND --03/28/14--  Andrea Davis, 36, and her brother Matthew Davis, 32, leave the Garland County Sheriffs Office after theybonded out in Hot Springs Friday. They were arraigned after being charged with manslaughter in the Feb. 29, 2012 slaying of Maxwell Anderson.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/RICK MCFARLAND --03/28/14-- Andrea Davis, 36, and her brother Matthew Davis, 32, leave the Garland County Sheriffs Office after theybonded out in Hot Springs Friday. They were arraigned after being charged with manslaughter in the Feb. 29, 2012 slaying of Maxwell Anderson.

A Hot Springs lawyer who had been charged with manslaughter in a February 2012 fatal shooting had that count dismissed as part of a plea deal entered Wednesday, court records show.

Andrea Davis pleaded guilty in Garland County Circuit Court to unlawful use of a communication device and was sentenced to six years of probation, a $1,500 fine and 80 hours of community service.

The state then dismissed the manslaughter count.

The plea deal came less than two weeks after Davis' brother, who was also charged in the shooting death of 34-year-old Maxwell Anderson, pleaded guilty to negligent homicide and was given a year of probation.

Arrest affidavits show Anderson had agreed to provide the Davises $1,200 worth of methamphetamine and that his fatal shooting by Matthew Davis "was the result of a drug transaction gone bad," the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported last year.

Anderson was shot Feb. 29, 2012, at Andrea Davis' Hot Springs' home.

Andrea Davis earlier made headlines in 2013 when Attorney General Dustin McDaniel publicly admitted an inappropriate relationship with her outside of his marriage. McDaniel, who had been considered a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for governor, later dropped out of the race over the issue.

See Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full coverage.

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