Arron Lewis was eager to kidnap a female real estate agent to hold for ransom and had scouted for an empty house to trap one before Beverly Carter disappeared, prosecutors told Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright on Tuesday.
In a hearing a week before Lewis' capital-murder trial is to begin, Wright ruled that text messages -- which prosecutors say prove their allegations -- can be introduced as evidence to show the planning that went into the abduction of the 50-year-old real estate agent.
Carter, a mother of three who was also raising an 11-year-old granddaughter, vanished in September 2014 after texting her husband that she was going to show a house to an unidentified client.
Her body, bound in duct tape, was found four days later buried at the Cabot concrete plant where Lewis worked. Lewis had been arrested a day earlier on suspicion in her abduction.
The 34-year-old Lewis of Jacksonville also is charged with kidnapping and has been in jail since his arrest in the fall of 2014. He told reporters after his arrest that he had sought out a "rich broker."
Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence at his trial, which is to start Tuesday.
His wife, Crystal Lowery, has promised to testify against him as part of an arrangement that secured her a 30-year prison sentence after she pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping in the case.
Lewis has denied wrongdoing in court filings, and his lawyers have submitted written notice that his defense will be that someone else is to blame for the crimes. The filing does not state whether the second party is his wife; or a man he told investigators helped him restrain Carter after her abduction; or a person whose identity has not been publicly disclosed.
Tuesday's 39-minute hearing was Lewis' eighth court appearance. It was held so that the judge could resolve defense challenges to the legality of a handful of the 60 pieces of evidence that prosecutors plan to introduce during the trial.
Defense attorney Bill James and co-counsel Lee Short objected to the text messages -- a single exhibit containing 40 messages -- saying that they should be barred from disclosure because of marital privilege and court rules that prohibit character evidence.
Prosecutors shouldn't be allowed to show evidence that Lewis and Lowery might have collaborated on crimes other than the ones they're accused of, Short told the judge.
But Wright sided with deputy prosecutor Barbara Mariani, who argued that the messages, supported by Lowery's testimony at trial, are admissible under a provision of the evidentiary rules that allow authorities to show proof of how the crime was planned.
And Wright, who has previously ruled against the defense on the marital-privilege issue, said that protection does not cover criminal activity.
"Conspiring to commit a crime ... is not what privilege is supposed to protect," the judge said.
Mariani said the texts, sent over about a two-hour period on Sept. 17, 2014, show that Lewis surveyed two houses that were for sale, with the intention of "targeting and kidnapping" a female real estate agent.
The couple wanted a married woman so a husband would be available to pay ransom, the prosecutor told the judge.
One house was deemed unsuitable because it had too many surveillance cameras, she said, reading from the messages.
None of the messages explicitly state that the couple was planning a kidnapping, Short told the judge. All they show is that Lewis was looking at houses, Short said.
Mariani said the texts show how eager Lewis and Lowery were to put their kidnapping plan into action.
"I'm so ready to do this. I love adrenaline," Lewis wrote in one message to his wife, the prosecutor said.
"They just went until they found a victim," Mariani told the judge. "And they found Mrs. Carter."
The judge also allowed prosecutors to introduce as evidence an email found on Carter's computer that she received on the evening before she disappeared. The email, a request for real estate listings, came from a Google email account that investigators linked to Lowery that uses an alias attributed to Lewis, Steven Adams, said Mariani.
Prosecutors agreed not to mention during the trial or show possible blood spots that were found in the vacant house where Carter was supposed to meet her client, since the marks were never tested to determine what they were.
The defense dropped its objections to two letters and affidavits that prosecutors say Lewis sent to Lowery that directed her on statements to make to authorities.
Also, Lewis' lawyers withdrew challenges to text message records that show 50 text messages exchanged between Carter's cellphone and a phone that Lewis had in his possession, over a two-day period before she disappeared.
The judge ruled that a printout of Carter's agent page on the Crye-Leike Realtors' website, that describes her home sales and some of her background, is not immediately admissible unless prosecutors can prove that Lewis saw it.
Also Tuesday, Lewis' attorneys said they would not present any evidence on behalf of their client beyond what prosecutors produced at the trial.
The judge denied a defense motion to force Lowery to submit to an interview with the defense lawyers ahead of the trial. James said he wanted only 30 minutes with her, but her attorney, Bret Qualls, told the judge that Lowery did not want to talk to James until she has to submit to cross-examination.
Also, the judge reaffirmed his decision allowing prosecutors to use a recording purported to be of Carter that Lewis played for investigators on his cellphone.
The message states, "Carl, it's Beverly. I just want to let you know I'm okay. I haven't been hurt. Just do what he says, and please don't call the police. If you call the police, it could be bad. Just want you to know I love you very much."
In December, the judge ordered that all of Lewis' recorded interviews with deputies cannot be used against him because deputies illegally questioned Lewis after he had asked for a lawyer.
Investigators will be allowed to testify about other statements that Lewis made to them describing how Carter had been abducted and held, according to the ruling.
The judge also ruled that deputies illegally searched Lewis' car and home, using search warrants approved by Pulaski County District Judge Wayne Gruber. Evidence Wright struck from the trial includes Carter's cellphone, which was found in Lewis' bedroom; and hair strands from Carter and duct tape that were found in the trunk of the car Lewis was driving.
Wright amended his findings regarding the car evidence Tuesday. He ruled that prosecutors can introduce items found in the passenger compartment of the black 2012 Ford Fusion that Lewis was driving, but he continued to bar the hair and duct tape evidence that was found in the trunk.
Wright told prosecutors Tuesday that he did not believe that deputies had followed department rules on towing wrecked or abandoned vehicles when they searched the car.
The items found in the passenger compartment were a softball bat, a Samsung Galaxy 34 phone, an IBM laptop and power cord, a length of white rope, a red umbrella, an orange iPhone case, a pair of white ear buds, a black watch, a cellphone power cord and a power converter for a phone. Prosecutors have said they have no plans to use the phones, watch and computers as evidence in the trial.
Lewis' head was shaved when he was arrested. During the 15½ months that he's been locked up, he has grown out his black, wavy hair. He appeared in court Tuesday with his temples shaved and a bruise under his left eye over his cheek bone. James said he doesn't know what caused the bruise.
Lewis appeared in court shackled at the hands, waist and legs. He had a five-officer escort, with three of the officers keeping their hands on him at all times while moving him into and out of the courtroom.
A Section on 01/06/2016