Arkansas girl, 14, accused of fatally stabbing man with broken glass

Police: Fight led to slaying of man

A 14-year-old Blytheville girl fatally stabbed a 38-year-old man with a broken piece of glass and now faces a second-degree murder charge, according to Capt. Scott Adams, commander of the Blytheville Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division.

Bennie Earl Holliman of Blytheville died Sunday evening from a stab wound in his neck.

According to a police report filed by Sgt. Eric Farrell of the Blytheville department, police were called to Cedar Grove Trailer Park at 901 S. Division St. at 7:40 p.m. Sunday. Officers found Holliman on the ground with a laceration in his neck. A person was attempting to provide medical assistance, Adams said.

Medical personnel took Holliman to Great River Medical Center in Blytheville where he died. His body was sent to the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock.

Witnesses told police that Holliman got into an argument and then a fight with the girl outside a trailer. The girl fled after she stabbed Holliman, Farrell wrote in his report.

"Information was received that the victim and the female ... may have been in an on-going relationship, which resulted in the altercation," Farrell wrote.

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Police did not name the girl, although she is charged as an adult. Adams said he would not name the girl because of possible future proceedings in juvenile court.

Police obtained a second-degree murder arrest warrant for the girl Monday. The girl's grandmother called police and turned her over to authorities, Adams said.

Farrell wrote that the girl told him Holliman was attempting to have a relationship with her and she refused him Sunday when the two were at her uncle's mobile home. She told Farrell that she left the home and Holliman followed her.

The girl said Holliman struck her in the head, knocking her to the ground, Farrell wrote. Holliman jumped on her and began punching and choking her, the officer said in the police report.

"[The girl] advised that while Holliman was on top of her, she grabbed a broken piece of glass and struck at Holliman," Farrell wrote, adding, "She did not intend on striking Holliman in the neck."

Farrell said when the girl was arrested, she had no signs of physical injury other than a small cut on her finger. The officer wrote that the girl became uncooperative when authorities attempted to photograph her injury.

Later, as she was transported to the juvenile section of the Mississippi County jail in Luxora, she became combative, Farrell said.

Family members told Farrell that Holliman and the girl had been in an "on-going relationship" for several months though family members had "voiced their disapproval."

The girl will be formally charged Feb. 21 in Mississippi County Circuit Court. She is in the Mississippi County jail in lieu of a $100,000 bond.

Holliman's death is the first homicide of the year in Mississippi County town of 15,120. Last year, there were 11 slayings, Adams said.

State Desk on 02/01/2017

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