Man pleads guilty in fatal stabbing

JONESBORO -- A Sedgwick man pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and hindering apprehension in the January stabbing death of a Craighead County man after a circuit judge said some statements made to police were not allowed in his murder trial.

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David Nathaniel Ferguson, 23, entered the plea in Craighead County Circuit Court during a late hearing Friday before he was to be tried with first-degree murder this week, Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington said.

Ferguson was accused in the Jan. 20 death of Silva Joe Fry in his Egypt home in western Craighead County.

Circuit Judge Brent Davis sentenced Ferguson to 15 years in prison.

Elizabeth Agnes McKnatt, 26, of Sedgwick pleaded guilty to first-degree murder last week in the slaying and received a 37-year prison sentence.

Police said Ferguson and McKnatt went to Fry's home to wash laundry. Ferguson told officers that he stepped outside the home and when he returned, he found Fry stabbed.

Ferguson said he and McKnatt drove away to find help, and the two were arrested when Bono police officers stopped the pair on Arkansas 230.

Ellington said Davis ruled that four of seven interviews between police and Ferguson were inadmissible in court because it took authorities too long to formally charge Ferguson before a district court judge.

Ferguson is required to serve 70 percent of his felony sentence before he can be considered for parole.

State Desk on 12/16/2014

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