FAYETTEVILLE -- Police have arrested three people in the fatal shooting of a man during a robbery last year, authorities said Wednesday.
Officers were called about 8:45 p.m. Aug. 12 to an area on East Robinswood Lane on a report of a death. A caller said he had found a dead man near a wooded area. The officers found Mario Lamont Miller, 47, of Fayetteville lying near the trees with a gunshot wound in the head.
Steven Rice, 21, of Pine Bluff and Keishayla Hill, 22, of Stuttgart were arrested and face charges of capital murder and tampering with physical evidence, according to the Washington County jail roster.
Devontae Herred, 25, of Fayetteville was arrested in connection with tampering with physical evidence, according to police.
Police said Miller was robbed and killed by Rice and Hill, who also stole Miller's 2011 Dodge Challenger.
Fayetteville detectives, with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task forces for eastern Arkansas, western Arkansas and western Tennessee, on Tuesday found and arrested Hill and Rice in Pine Bluff and Herred in Memphis.
Hill and Rice had been booked into the Washington County jail by Wednesday afternoon. Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett said they will be held in lieu of bond on the capital murder charge.
Durrett said that Herred will have a court hearing, and he will either waive extradition and be returned to Washington County or the extradition process will begin.
Durrett said the arrests were made possible by extensive use of cellphone data and information from social media postings. He said cellphone data showed one or two of the three suspects going to and from Miller's residence on the day of the killing, and cellphone data also placed them in the area of the shooting around the time it took place.
Durrett said the Dodge Challenger stolen in the incident was unusual in appearance, with some noticeable after-market work having been done on the car. He said witnesses reported seeing the car and that police obtained surveillance video from several locations showing two of the suspects in the vehicle a few hours after the killing. Other social media postings later showed the vehicle at the home of a relative of one of the suspects in the Pine Bluff area, authorities said.
Durrett said other social media posts included a discussion about pawning a weapon, and police were able to check transactions and find records of Hill pawning a gun in a Pine Bluff pawnshop. The weapon was found, and DNA testing showed Miller's blood on the gun, authorities said.