A Crawford County circuit judge set bail Monday at $500,000 for a man arrested Friday in the beating death of another man who had given him a place to stay.
County jail records showed Randall Jordan, 35, was being held on charges of capital murder, third-degree domestic battery and terroristic threatening in the death of Larry Jones, 59.
Prosecuting Attorney Marc McCune said he didn't expect formal charges to be filed against Jordan until next week or the week after.
Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell appointed the public defender's office to represent Jordan.
Sheriff Ron Brown said Jones was beaten with a club or ax handle Friday morning while he slept in his bed in the 2300 block of Grand Juniper Road east of Van Buren.
He said Jones, who had allowed Jordan to live with him because Jordan was unemployed, had told Jordan to leave. Jordan returned later and entered the house, went to Jones' bedroom and began beating him on the back of the head with the club.
Jones rolled out of bed and Jordan continued to hit him, Brown said.
A woman who also was living in the house was awakened and ran next door to alert Jones' son. Brown said it was unclear Monday whether the woman was Jones' girlfriend or someone else he allowed to stay in the home.
He said the sheriff's office received the call at 5:21 a.m. Friday as a medical emergency.
Brown said that the son, who has a concealed-carry permit, held Jordan at gunpoint while Jones was loaded into a vehicle by neighbors and family and driven to Sparks Regional Medical Center in Fort Smith, where he died.
At one point the gun was fired, but Brown said the shot may have been into the air under unclear circumstances. No one was injured, he said.
A sheriff's deputy who went to the hospital on the medical call learned that Jones' son was holding Jordan at gunpoint and drove to the home, where Jordan was arrested, authorities said. Jordan did not give a statement to investigators about the killing, Brown said.
State Desk on 06/14/2016