A woman who was among four teenagers charged with murdering a Conway couple last year will undergo a mental evaluation.
Anastasia Roberts, 18, of Conway arrived in court Monday in handcuffs and with long, braided pigtails. Wearing striped jail clothing, Roberts appeared to have been crying and said nothing audible during the brief hearing in Faulkner County Circuit Court.
Roberts is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of theft by receiving in the July 21, 2015, shooting deaths of Robert and Patricia Cogdell, both 66. Roberts was 17 at the time of the killings but is charged as an adult.
Judge Troy Braswell granted the motion for the evaluation by an independent mental-health expert. Braswell scheduled another pretrial hearing for 9 a.m. Feb. 9.
[DOCUMENT: Read the motion requesting a mental evaluation]
In a motion filed earlier Monday, Roberts' attorney, James Wyatt, wrote that "recent developments" had led him "to believe that Defendant is in need of a mental health evaluation."
Wyatt wrote that he had spoken with Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Hugh Finkelstein about the matter "and believes that the State concurs that it is appropriate for a mental examination to be performed."
At a pretrial hearing in September for Roberts, she also appeared to have been crying. That time, Wyatt asked for a postponement and said he needed to check on some "medical issues."
Neither Wyatt nor Finkelstein would comment specifically about the medical problems after Monday's hearing.
Two of the other teenagers charged in the killings -- Connor Atchley, now 18, of Greenbrier and Justin Staton, now 16, of Conway -- have pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other offenses and have been sentenced to prison.
The Cogdells had been Staton's legal guardians since 2010 and had raised him as a grandson even after genetic testing showed that their son was not Staton's biological father. Staton was 14 when the killings took place.
Atchley, who was 17 then, was Roberts' boyfriend. Recently, she filed a letter with the circuit clerk's office asking that she and Atchley be allowed to marry.
Relatives of the Cogdells sat on one side of the courtroom Monday. At least one relative of Roberts sat with others across the aisle. Behind them sat relatives of the fourth defendant, Hunter Drexler, 19, of Clinton. Drexler is awaiting trial on capital murder charges and other offenses, including abuse of a corpse.
Drexler and Roberts have been jailed since they were arrested shortly after the killings.
As Roberts was leaving the courtroom Monday, a woman sitting on a bench behind her said, "I love you."
State Desk on 11/08/2016