LITTLE ROCK — A 49-year-old Little Rock man admitted Tuesday to fatally stabbing a romantic rival more than two years ago.
Paul Ira Freeman accepted a 20-year prison sentence in an agreement with Pulaski County prosecutors to plead guilty to second-degree murder, reduced from first-degree murder, for the July 2008 killing of John Ryder at Freeman’s South Park Street home.
Deputy prosecutor Colin Wall told Circuit Judge Barry Sims that Ryder’s stab wound was 10 inches deep with the knife penetrating the 42-year old Ryder’s stomach, pancreas and aorta.
Freeman’s companion, 50-year-old Elizabeth Graham, witnessed the attack, and Freeman admitted to a 911 dispatcher and to police called to the scene that he had stabbed Ryder. He directed officers to the knife in the kitchen sink, according to arrest reports.
Police said that when officers walked into the house, Freeman was sitting on the couch, putting on his shoes. Police said he told an officer, “I know that I’m going to jail. ... I told him not to come over here.”
The men had quarreled earlier that evening, Graham told police, and Freeman was jealous of her friendship with Ryder. Graham said Ryder was at the door when Freeman made a thrusting motion at him, which she thought was Freeman punching him in the stomach. Graham said she and Ryder had previously lived together.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 09/22/2010