HOT SPRINGS — Prosecutors formally charged two men with capital murder Friday in the slayings of five people during a November burglary.
Samuel Conway and Jeremy Pickney face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted of gunning down four people in a trailer and setting it ablaze, then killing an elderly man in his home next door. A third suspect died in a shootout with police.
The crime was not random, new court records say.
The pair went to the Gentry family property in the Pearcy area of Garland County the night of Nov. 11 to get revenge, records say.
“Jeremy Gentry tried tosteal ‘our stuff ’ so we are going to go steal ‘his stuff,’” Conway told his girlfriend, the records say.
Early the next morning, authorities found 24-yearold Jeremy Gentry’s body with a gunshot in his head in the burned-out rubble of the trailer.
His girlfriend, Kristyn Warneke, 19, was shot twice in the head. His father Edward Gentry Jr., 56, was shot once in the head, and his mother Pamela Gentry, 52, had 10 wounds from three bullets.
The family patriarch who lived next door, Edward Gentry Sr., 80, took two rounds in his head at close range.
The assailants made off with expensive rims, tires, televisions, guns and a few other items.
Police arrested Conway and Pickney, both 23 of Hot Springs, early Nov. 20 in traffic stops. The other suspect, Marvin Stringer, 22, was killed the night before in a shootout with police at a motel.
Garland County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Oliver has not said whether he intends to pursue the death penalty.
“This thing’s still under investigation,” he said.
As for the victims’ relatives, Oliver said: “They want justice.”
Conway’s appointed attorney, Pat Aydelott with theArkansas Public Defender Commission, declined to comment.
“I will eventually,” he said as he left the Garland County Courthouse, bound for the jail to meet with his client.
Public Defender Mark Fraiser, who is representing Pickney, also declined to comment. He cited a gag order that’s been in place since the pair’s arrest.
In addition to the five counts of capital murder, Conway and Pickney are charged with arson, two counts of aggravated residential burglary and multiple theft counts.
One of the theft charges relates to the elder Gentry’s truck, which was foundburned and abandoned in Hot Springs.
According to court records, the case came together with the help of an informant who bought some of the Gentrys’ stolen belongings, incriminating statements from the suspects’ girlfriends and a man who claims Conway confessed the crimes to him.
Police also reported finding cell-phone videos showing the three men with guns talking about “gang activities” and Conway and Pickney practicing armed robberies.
The week of the arrests, Conway met with acquaintance Shantell Henry to trade cars, court records say.
“Did you read about those [five] people who got burned up in the newspaper?” Conway is quoted as asking Henry.
“I’m the one that did that,” Conway told him, according to the records.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 03/06/2010