A Crawford County man was sentenced to life in prison Monday after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in the June 2016 beating death of a good Samaritan who allowed him to move in to his home.
Randall Jordan, 36, was to have gone on trial today in Crawford County Circuit Court on a capital murder charge for which the state was seeking the death penalty. The trial was scheduled to take all week before Circuit Judge Mike Medlock.
Jordan was accused of beating 59-year-old Larry Eugene Jones to death with an ax handle in the early-morning hours of June 10, 2016.
Jones' son, Riley, told police, according to reports, that his father had allowed Jordan to stay in the house but kicked him out because Jordan wouldn't do anything around the house, help pay bills or try to get a job.
Jordan, who had a key, sneaked back into the house on 5305 Grand Juniper Road in rural Van Buren. A woman staying with Jones, Melissa Qualls, told police her whining dogs woke her up and she heard gasping coming from Jones' room.
She told police she saw the shadow of someone striking down with a large object. With each strike, Jones, lying on the floor, made a loud grunting noise.
Qualls ran next door and alerted Jones' uncle, Walter Young, that someone was being hurt at Jones' home. Young went to wake Riley Jones, who lived nearby, and told him to get his gun because there was trouble.
Riley Jones told deputies he fired his gun into the air as he ran to his father's house because he didn't know what was going on inside.
He confronted Jordan, who was still holding the ax handle, in the dark standing in the doorway to his father's bedroom, the reports said.
According to reports, Riley asked Jordan where his father was, and Jordan replied that Larry Jones was fine and that he had run out the back door.
Qualls told deputies she could see Larry Jones' legs in the bedroom and called Jordan a liar.
Riley Jones gave his gun to Young and told him to watch Jordan until deputies arrived, then picked up his father and drove him to Sparks Regional Medical Center in Fort Smith, where he later died.
An autopsy report from the Arkansas medical examiner's office concluded that Larry Jones died from head and brain injuries.
Deputies also learned that Jordan was depressed because he recently had lost his mother and his job, and his wife had divorced him.
A report of a competency evaluation at the State Hospital in March concluded that Jordan had the capacity to understand the court proceedings against him and could assist his attorneys in the preparation of his trial defense.
Also, the report said, Jordan did not suffer from a mental disease or defect but was in remission from an opioid use disorder.
Jordan told the doctor in the report that he quit taking the drugs for the sake of his three daughters four or five months before his arrest for Jones' death.
State Desk on 12/12/2017