Plea guilty to fatally shooting Arkansas sheriff's deputy, lover's kin; 'I can't be forgiven,' killer says

James Bowden
James Bowden

DARDANELLE -- A man who shot and killed a Yell County sheriff's lieutenant, an elderly woman in a wheelchair and a teenager pleaded guilty Friday, avoiding a possible death penalty but ensuring that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

As James Arthur Bowden, 42, of Dardanelle was escorted into a heavily guarded courtroom, he focused his teary gaze on his former girlfriend, Haley McHam, 31, seated in the second row. Once at the defense table, Bowden spun around in his chair and beckoned to McHam.

Wracked with sobs, McHam looked down at the floor, refusing to meet his gaze.

On May 11, Bowden killed Yell County sheriff's Lt. Kevin Mainhart, 46, shooting him multiple times during a traffic stop off Arkansas 27 on Slo Fork Road. He then drove to a home at 12084 Gum Springs Road and fatally shot Rita Miller, 61, and Ciera Miller, 17. Bowden held McHam hostage.

Click here for larger versions
Photos by Benjamin Krain

After a seven-hour standoff with authorities, Bowden released McHam and surrendered.

"I'm really sorry about what happened," Bowden told the families of the three victims after entering his plea Friday. "I can't be forgiven, so I won't ask."

In full waist and ankle shackles and dressed in a red-and-white-striped jail jumpsuit, Bowden stood and faced the gallery where McHam and other family members stood to give victim impact statements.

Not making eye contact with Bowden, McHam asked if she could read her handwritten statement to the judge.

"I devoted nine years to James Bowden," said McHam, who spoke of supporting him through unemployment and continuing to go back to him after repeated domestic-violence episodes.

"I let my family and kids down every time I went back to him," she said, recalling how she had become tired of being mistreated, tired from fighting, and so she made the decision to leave him for good.

Bowden didn't take it well. Deputies received a call about a domestic disturbance at the Gum Springs Road property early in the morning of May 11.

[EMAIL UPDATES: Get free breaking news alerts, daily newsletters with top headlines delivered to your inbox]

ADVERTISEMENT

More headlines

Rita Miller was battling cancer and was in her wheelchair on the porch with her granddaughter, Ciera, when Bowden shot them.

"What he took from us, I'll never get back," McHam said.

Her mother wanted to spend "what life she had left" with family, and Ciera dreamed of falling in love and having a family.

"They got death," McHam said, sobbing. "And he got life."

Chris Miller, the son of Rita Miller, said afterward that the family did not agree to the plea bargain.

"We had no say-so. We would've fought tooth and nail to see him put to death. I'm sure the officer's [Mainhart] family felt the same way," Chris Miller said. "He got what he wanted; we didn't."

Messages left for Yell County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Taum were not returned as of late Friday.

Defense attorney Bill James said in a phone interview after the hearing that he was "glad we were able to complete it as quickly as we did."

"It was going to be a hard case for everybody, especially, obviously, the family of the people who were deceased," James said.

"He knew he couldn't make it better. But he didn't want to cause any more pain," James said of his client.

David Miller, whose relationship to the deceased was unclear, stood directly in front of Bowden, separated by two armed state troopers, and looked Bowden in the eyes.

"You are a lazy, yellow coward," he said. "To me, you don't deserve any rights."

The Mainhart family was not in the courtroom for the plea but sent a written statement to the court. The family spoke of how Mainhart, who spent two decades with the West Memphis Police Department, moved back to Dardanelle to be closer to his family.

"On May 11, 2017, you took our loved one away from us in a senseless act of violence that cuts to the very heart of a civil society. You made a conscious decision to take Kevin's life and changed ours forever," the family said in the statement.

The family would've pushed for the death penalty if it would've been carried out quickly, but death sentences can take decades to come to fruition, the statement read.

"We are satisfied you will spend the rest of your life in prison. You will never be able to inflict this pain and hurt on another family. There is no sentence harsh enough for what you have done and taken from us. We want the justice we will never see," the statement read. "Every day you are alive is one more day than you allowed Kevin. Someday you will have to answer to God. May he show you the same mercy you showed Kevin."

Information for this article was contributed by Emma Pettit of Arkansas Online.

State Desk on 06/24/2017

Upcoming Events