Arkansan who shot man, beat him with firewood gets 40-year term after pleading guilty to murder

A Knoxville man was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years in prison for shooting a man and beating him in the head with pieces of firewood.

Samuel Love, 34, was sentenced after pleading guilty in Johnson County Circuit Court last week to charges of first-degree murder, first-degree battery and aggravated assault, Prosecuting Attorney David Gibbons said.

Circuit Judge William Pearson sentenced Love as part of a plea agreement to 40 years for the murder, 10 years for the battery and six years for the assault, with all the sentences to run at the same time.

A jury trial in Circuit Court in Clarksville had been scheduled next week on the charges against Love.

According to court records, Love shot his neighbor Michael Dale Bowles on Sept. 1, 2016, with a 12-gauge shotgun when Bowles showed up at Love’s home with a baseball bat.

Bowles, Love and others had been in a fight at Bowles’ home nearby, after which Amanda Guthrie, who lived with Bowles, berated him for not defending her in the fight. Bowles grabbed the bat and headed to Love’s house to confront him, records showed.

When Bowles arrived at Love’s home, Love went inside and emerged with a shotgun that he used to shoot Bowles, according to court records. After Bowles fell wounded, according to the records, Love began beating Bowles in the head with pieces of firewood.

In court records, Love said he shot Bowles after Bowles attacked him with the bat.

Love also went back inside his house, reloaded the shotgun and shot Guthrie in both her legs, according to records. He then went to Bowles’ home and shot inside the house he believed was occupied by Guthrie’s 15-year-old son. The boy was not injured.

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Bowles was transported by helicopter to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock where he died. Guthrie was taken to St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Russellville where she was treated for her injuries and released the next day.

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