Trial a go for Arkansas man accused of fatally running over his girlfriend

A Sebastian County man is scheduled to go on trial today for the death of his girlfriend who was run over multiple times with a vehicle and the attempted murder of the woman's toddler son she was cradling as she was run over.

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Jury selection is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in Sebastian County Circuit Court in Greenwood for Aaron Cutsinger, 26, of Hartford on charges of first-degree murder in the death of 23-year-old Leonora Rippy of Boles in Scott County and the attempted first-degree murder of Rippy's son, Slayde Carey, who was 2 at the time.

According to the prosecuting attorney's office, the trial is expected to last four days before Circuit Judge James O. Cox.

An affidavit by a Sebastian County sheriff's deputy said Cutsinger was accused of running over Rippy and Slayde several times with his pickup Sept. 19, 2015.

The affidavit said Rippy's body was discovered after a motorist found Slayde, naked and bruised, walking on a road on Sugar Loaf Mountain, a forested and remote area in south Sebastian County.

Rippy's body was found farther along the road, and officials say it appeared she had been holding her son at the time both were run over and that she shielded him with her body, according to the affidavit.

An acquaintance of Rippy told investigators Cutsinger was angry with Rippy because she wouldn't allow him to adopt Slayde and had made threats against her, the affidavit said.

Sheriff Bill Hollenbeck and others went to Cutsinger's home in Hartford where they saw his maroon pickup had damage consistent with that found at the scene where Rippy's body was found, according to a sheriff's office report. The report said it appeared a vehicle had collided with some saplings off the road and sustained damage.

An Arkansas State Hospital mental evaluation conducted on Cutsinger in April recounted Cutsinger's side of the story. In it, Cutsinger said Rippy wanted him to marry her and get her pregnant but that he did not want to.

They began arguing toward the end of their relationship and he admitted sending threatening text messages. But he said he was intoxicated at the time he sent the messages and didn't remember sending them.

On Sept. 19, according to the mental evaluation report, Cutsinger and Rippy got into an argument on Sugar Loaf Mountain when Rippy asked him to kill someone in her house. He replied he did not think they could be friends anymore and he could not care for Slayde.

He threw her things out of the pickup and began to drive away, he said in the evaluation report. She jumped in front of the pickup with Slayde in her arms and he ran over her without realizing it.

He said he climbed out of the pickup and saw that neither Rippy nor Slayde were breathing, the report said. He said he thought he called 911 and said he couldn't remember anything after that.

State Desk on 11/07/2016

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