FORT SMITH - Two men charged in separate murder cases in Sebastian County Circuit Court are scheduled to go to trial in the spring, according to court records.
Kevyphonh Sounyaphong, 60, is scheduled for a jury trial the week of April 14. Sounyaphong is charged with first-degree murder in the Jan. 24, 2013, strangulation of Sakounsouk Vilayhong, 50.
Jonathan Jackson, 24, who is charged with first-degree murder and committing a terroristic act in the Dec. 28, 2012, shooting of Aleya Criswell, 21, is scheduled for a jury trial the week of May 12.
Vilayhong was found dead in her Fort Smith home by her husband when he returned from work about 4 p.m. on Jan. 24., 2013. An autopsy by the state medical examiner’s office determined that she died from strangulation.
Vilayhong had been at the Choctaw Casino in Pocola,Okla., that day and had returned home that afternoon.
Family and friends, including Sounyaphong, who told police he was a friend of Vilayhong, were interviewed during the investigation. Initially, Sounyaphong told police he was not at the casino the day Vilayhong was there. Later, he changed his story and admitted he was at the casino at the same time as Vilayhong.
Cellphone records also showed that he was at the casino that day and in the vicinity of Vilayhong’s home around the time of her death, according to court records.
Sounyaphong was arrested in August after DNA analysis of a hair found on Vilayhong matched Sounyaphong’s DNA.
He remains in the Sebastian County jail in lieu of $500,000 bond.
Jackson was arrested shortly after Criswell was shot. Police say Jackson told police that he and another man were walking down a street in north Fort Smith and the man told him he had been threatened by some people.
As a van containing Criswell and six others drove by, the man with Jackson pointed to the van and told him the people threatening him were in the van. Jackson pulled out a .
380-caliber pistol and fired all of its rounds at the van, records state. One of the shots hit Criswell in the lower back.
She was driven to Sparks Regional Medical Center, where she died.
Jackson remains in the Sebastian County jail in lieu of $250,000 bond.
Arkansas, Pages 20 on 02/23/2014