More than 13 years after his first trial on a capital murder charge, Rickey Dale Newman is scheduled to face a jury again early next year.
Crawford County Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell set Newman's trial for Feb. 1. Newman, 58, was convicted in June 2002 in the mutilation murder of 46-year-old Marie Cholette at a transient camp on the edge of Van Buren on or about Feb. 7, 2001.
His first trial lasted one day, and he was sentenced to death. Special prosecutor Ron Fields has told Cottrell that he will not seek the death penalty against Newman in the retrial.
Cottrell also set aside Dec. 15, 17 and 18 for a hearing on Newman's motion to suppress statements that he made to police around the time of his arrest in 2001. The motion was filed in July by his attorney, Julie Brain of Philadelphia.
In the motion, Brain asked Cottrell to disallow use in the retrial the statements he made in a March 2, 2001, interview at the Van Buren Police Department, and a March 7, 2001, statement overheard by a Van Buren police officer: '"I killed the b***h. I don't know why they won't let me plead guilty."'
The motion also seeks to exclude oral and video-recorded statements that he gave police and Crawford County Prosecuting Attorney Marc McCune on May 9, 2002, and a letter he wrote to McCune shortly after his arrest.
Brain argued that the statements should be disallowed at trial because Newman was illegally detained when he gave the statements; that the statements were obtained contrary to his right against self-incrimination; that his statements were false and unreliable; and that he gave the statements when he was mentally incompetent.
Fields also has a pending motion to limit evidence the defense can present at trial on possible alternative suspects. No hearing date has been set on that motion, according to court records.
Cottrell set the trial for Newman after ruling earlier this month that he was mentally fit to stand trial.
The Arkansas Supreme Court in January 2014 threw out Newman's 2002 conviction and death sentence on the grounds he suffered from a mental disease or defect that interfered with his ability to assist his attorney in preparing for his first trial. Newman defended himself in his trial, with Public Defender Bob Marquette assisting him.
The state Supreme Court sent the case back to Cottrell so Newman could receive a new trial when he was deemed competent.
After multiple mental evaluations over 19 months, Cottrell ruled Nov. 4 after reviewing the evaluations that Newman's mental competence had been restored.
In the ruling, he noted that one doctor pointed out mental diseases and defects tend to "'wax and wane with time'" but that, at present, Newman is mentally fit.
After Newman was sentenced to death in 2002, he successfully waived his appeals and was scheduled to be executed July 26, 2005.
Four days before his execution date, he allowed attorneys to file for a stay of his execution. The stay was granted on the grounds that he suffered from mental disease and defect that made him ineligible for execution. His appeal process started from there.
Metro on 11/19/2015