LITTLE ROCK — A Boone County man is expected to be charged today with capital murder in the shooting deaths of a Boone County couple, Sheriff Danny Hickman said Thursday.
Investigators say William Curtis Krohn, 55, used a small handgun to shoot Christine Ann Pryor, 57, and her husband, William Eugene Pryor, 56, in a dispute Wednesday.
Police were contacted at 5:55 p.m. Wednesday, and Krohn “was arrested prettyquickly,” Hickman said. “The officers arrived at the scene, and he was there.”
The couple was killed in the living room of their mobile home at 19001 Old Lowery Road, Hickman said. Their bodies were sent to the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock for autopsies.
Krohn lived in one of three trailers on the property.
Deputy prosecutor Wes Bradford, who met with Hickman and others at the sheriff’s office Thursday afternoon, said Krohn and the victims were in a dispute over money. The Pryors supposedly consumed food and drink paid for by Krohn and refused to pay for what they ate, Bradford said.
“This was something that has been building up over a period of time,” Bradford said.
Hickman wouldn’t say how many shots were fired.
Shirley Daniel, who lives about a quarter-mile from the mobile home where the Pryors lived, said her son was in a garage when he heard three gunshots about 4 p.m. Wednesday. He assumed the shots came from another neighbor’s property across the Missouri state line where firing guns for target practice is common.
“He thought nothing of it,” she said.
Later, they figured out that the gunfire came from the Pryor property.
“They hang around and they drink like all the people do anymore, except for us up here on the corner,” Daniel said.
“I can’t believe this has happened. It’s unbelievable. Bill was the one who’d break up the fights down there,” Daniel said.
Other neighbors didn’t know the people in the three mobile homes, but they were familiar with the loud, late-night music.
“Sometimes we can’t hear even in our living room,” said Don Beevers, who has lived next door to the Pryor property for five years. “They used to beat on drums until 3 or 4 in the morning.
Bradford said Krohn’s first appearance and arraignment today will be in front of Circuit Judge Gordon Webb. In addition to the capital-murder charges, Krohn is expected to be charged with aggravated residential burglary, Bradford said.
Krohn was being held without bail Thursday in the Boone County jail.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 07/30/2010