Arkansas parolee gets 30 years in stabbing of couple

A Harrison man pleaded no contest Thursday in Boone County Circuit Court to two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

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Samuel Lambert, 27, attacked Brandon Martin and Hannah Wright on March 1, 2015, "in retaliation" for Martin claiming to be a vice president in the White Aryan Resistance, a white supremacist group, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Both Martin and Wright were stabbed several times and suffered lacerated livers.

Two brothers, Samuel and Jeremiah Lowe, both of Harrison, also were charged in the attack. Samuel Lowe, 23, pleaded guilty in September to two counts of attempted capital murder and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Attempted murder charges against Jeremiah Lowe, 30, were dropped during his trial in January.

According to the affidavit, Samuel Lowe told police that Martin wasn't a vice president in the White Aryan Resistance and he was going to have to be "set straight" and "taught a lesson."

"The original plan made by the actors was to beat the victims up and choke them out and then burn the residence down," according to the affidavit.

The plan changed when they arrived at the couple's residence east of Bellefonte, and "the decision was made to kill the victims," according to the court document.

Lambert told police the reason the three men went to Martin's house was because Martin owed him "items and property" and they intended to retrieve that property, according to charges filed two days after the attack. Once there, a "heated" argument ensued, Lambert told police.

Lambert was sentenced to 30 years in prison on the two attempted first-degree murder charges and 15 years for tampering with evidence because he burned his bloody clothes after the attack. He also pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of carrying a weapon and was sentenced to one year in the county jail. All three sentences are to run concurrently.

As part of a plea agreement, charges of aggravated residential burglary and engaging in violent criminal group activity were dropped. Lambert was scheduled for trial Monday but that was canceled after the plea agreement.

Lambert had been convicted previously of four felonies and was on parole at the time of the attack, according to a report by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Wes Bradford.

The White Aryan Resistance is a neo-Nazi group formed in the mid-1980s by Tom Metzger, a former California grand dragon of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups and other extremists.

Metro on 06/21/2016

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