BLYTHEVILLE -- A Mississippi County Circuit Court jury convicted a Blytheville man of first-degree murder for the 2016 beating death of his girlfriend Thursday, and a judge sentenced him to 60 years in prison.
Jamal Akram, 54, was convicted in the March 18, 2016, slaying of Linda Hatcher, 57, said 2nd Judicial Circuit Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington. Circuit Judge Ralph Wilson Jr. of Osceola imposed the 60-year sentence upon the jury's recommendation, saying Akram was charged as a habitual offender.
Blytheville police responded to a call to the South Franklin Street home shared by Akram and Hatcher about a woman "having difficulty breathing," a police report indicated.
When officers arrived, they found Hatcher's body in the back of the home and a large amount of bloody water in a bathtub.
Akram, also known as Adam Troy Ford, told police then that he thought someone broke into the home and beat Hatcher. He had been convicted in 2005 of manslaughter for a vehicular death, said Capt. Scott Adams, the commander of the Blytheville Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division.
State Desk on 08/25/2017