Spa City man gets 20 years for slaying

Defendant pleads guilty to first-degree murder in beating of former boss, 75

HOT SPRINGS -- A man was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to the 2019 beating death of his 75-year-old former employer.

Hunter Allen Byers, 21, of Hot Springs was set to stand trial Monday in Garland County Circuit Court. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the April 30, 2019, attack on Silas Turner, who died from his injuries three days later.

Byers, then 19, was arrested May 1, 2019, and has remained in custody since, with bond set at $750,000.

Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kara Petro told The Sentinel-Record on Thursday that Byers will have to serve 70%, or at least 14 years, of his sentence before he is eligible for parole, noting that the plea agreement is "what [Turner's] daughter wanted."

Petro said the daughter's decision was partially because she "didn't want to gamble" with a jury potentially reducing the charge to second-degree murder and Byers, who had no previous criminal history, getting out of prison after 7½ years "because of the lower parole eligibility" for second-degree murder.

First-degree murder is punishable by up to life in prison while second-degree murder is punishable by up to 30 years.

Turner's daughter also wanted Byers "to have the option to rehabilitate himself and not get a life sentence," Petro said, "because the jury could go the entire opposite way and give life." She said the plea agreement was "a for sure conviction and sentence that brings closure ... without dealing with the appeal process and the unknown of a jury trial."

A charge of aggravated residential burglary from the incident was withdrawn previously "because it was unclear how [Byers] got into the house," Petro said. As part of the plea deal, an aggravated assault charge involving an attack by Byers on an eyewitness to the attack was withdrawn with the consent of the victim.

According to the probable cause affidavit, shortly after 11 p.m. April 30, 2019, Hot Springs police were called to an address on Judy Court after a man showed up there yelling for help. The man stated that a known person, later identified as Byers, had attacked Turner at his residence at 115 Ranch St.

Police found Turner unconscious on the floor in "a pool of blood" with obvious signs of trauma to his head and face. He was transported to CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs where he died.

The witness told detectives that he was just hired by Turner to replace a former employee fired a few days earlier. He said he moved in with Turner earlier that day and met the former employee, a biracial teenage male, a couple of days earlier but couldn't remember his name.

He said the same teen showed up at the house around 11 p.m. and knocked on the door.

The witness answered and seeing who it was called for Turner, who walked to the door as the witness went toward his bedroom. Seconds later, the witness said he heard Turner yelling for help and saw the teen beating Turner with a metal object.

The witness said he tried to help Turner, but the teen came after him with the metal object. He said he fought him off and fled from the house to get help.

He gave police the name of another employee who later told officers that the teen was named Hunter and lived at a Michael Street residence. A records check revealed that was the address of Hunter Allen Byers, who was "an exact match" to the description given by the witness.

The second employee stated that he had known Byers for about a year and confirmed that Turner fired him earlier. The first witness later picked Byers out of a photo lineup.

According to the affidavit for a search warrant of Byers' house, detectives made contact with Byers' mother who told them Byers was inside. Byers came out and was taken into custody.

Byers' mother said her son left the house around 10 p.m. April 30 and returned around midnight. She said he "kept going into the basement area."

Items seized from the basement included three small white towels, clothing and a hammer, an affidavit states.

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