Court OKs test in Carter slaying

Judge’s reversal sets mental exam

The mental evaluation for the Jacksonville man accused of killing a real estate agent is back on after the presiding judge reversed his earlier ruling that canceled the examination, reporting that both the prosecution and defense want Arron Michael Lewis' mental health to be reviewed by state doctors.

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Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright's Thursday ruling will send the 33-year-old defendant to the State Hospital for an assessment of his sanity.

Lewis' lawyer asked for the exam at his first circuit court appearance but told Wright that Lewis didn't want it.

The attorney, Jim Hensley of Conway, subsequently filed a motion to cancel the exam, which Wright now says he mistakenly granted last week.

A State Hospital mental evaluation in criminal cases, colloquially known as an Act 3, will require doctors to try to determine whether Lewis is competent to participate in his defense and whether he understood the difference between right and wrong at the time of the killing. The evaluation process is expected to take months, with Lewis due back in court in February for a report on the progress of the procedure.

The judge also dismissed a handwritten motion by Lewis to replace Hensley, who the defendant complained was ignoring his wishes on how to proceed with a defense.

In that ruling, also issued Thursday, the judge noted that Arkansas Supreme Court precedent does not allow a defendant to both file his own pleadings and be represented by an attorney.

Lewis and his wife of nine months, 41-year-old Crystal Hope Lowery, are charged with capital murder and kidnapping in the September slaying of Scott real estate agent Beverly Lownes Carter.

The married mother of three had been reported missing by her husband after she'd gone to show a home to a client.

Sheriff's investigators announced their interest in Lewis three days later after he crashed his car while under police scrutiny, then fled the hospital where he'd been taken for treatment. He was arrested the next day on the kidnapping charge, with the capital murder charge added after a 12-hour interrogation session with deputies.

Carter's body was found buried behind the cement company for which Lewis had worked. His wife was charged a month later. Both have denied involvement in Carter's slaying.

In a federal lawsuit Lewis has filed against the sheriff's office, he has accused investigators of brutalizing him and denying him medical treatment and access to a lawyer to get him to cooperate with them.

Lowery's lawyers have not asked for a trial date. They told the judge at the couple's first court appearance that they wanted to see how Lewis' mental evaluation went.

Metro on 12/20/2014

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