A murder-trial witness faces arrest after failing to obey a court order to appear in Pulaski County Circuit Court Tuesday, and prosecutors said the man's refusal to cooperate forced them to drop charges against a North Little Rock man accused of beating another man to death with a piece of lumber.
Deputy prosecutor Michelle Quillen withdrew the second-degree murder charge against Eric Aaron McFadden on Tuesday, the same day the 37-year-old, represented by attorney Stuart Vess, was scheduled to stand trial. The charge is a Class A felony that carries a 30-year maximum sentence.
The decision to drop the charge against McFadden does not appear to have affected the case against his wife. Lavonda McFadden, his spouse of 10 years, is scheduled to stand trial in January on a hindering apprehension charge based on police accusations that she tried to help hide her husband from deputies who were looking to arrest him. The 43-year-old mother of four faces up to 20 years in prison.
In October 2016, sheriff's deputies called to break up a fight found 42-year-old Alexander Judd Wyles bleeding from his nose and mouth at Edwin Ray's Wildrose Lane home.
Two witnesses said McFadden had attacked and beaten the older man with a 2-by-2 board, the sheriff's office reported. One of the witnesses picked McFadden out of a photographic lineup, according to the sheriff's office.
Deputies arrested McFadden the next day at a North Little Rock motel shortly after Wyles, the father of a daughter, died.
Quillen told Judge Herb Wright that Ray, 60, has repeatedly refused to testify against McFadden. Ray is the only eyewitness, she said. He is "essential" to proving the murder case, and, without him, prosecutors can't move forward, she said.
"Without him, we are unable to meet our burden" of proof, guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, Quillen told the judge.
Wright has had Ray jailed once before. The judge had Ray arrested in August after the man refused to obey a subpoena and come to court for McFadden's first trial setting. The proceeding was pushed back to November and Wright ordered Ray to appear.
Court records show that in July 1994, Ray, then 37, was one of three men accused of killing 17-year-old Jerry Benard Parker of Jacksonville. First-degree murder charges were dropped against Ray and a second man, and Keith Brewer pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a 20-year prison term.
Ray and Parker were among several people involved in an argument on Buford Street in the McAlmont community of North Little Rock, court files show.
When Parker and three men with him got back into a 1988 Chrysler LeBaron and began to drive away, someone fired on the car and hit Parker as he sat in a back seat.
The car carrying Parker drove around the block to a house on Morning Glory Street where residents called 911, but Parker died at the scene.
Metro on 11/08/2017