Pine Bluff man guilty of capital murder, sentenced to life

A Pine Bluff man has been sentenced to consecutive life-in-prison terms in the 2012 death of a woman and kidnapping of her daughter, officials said.

Kevin McMiller was found guilty Thursday of charges including capital murder, kidnapping and rape in the March 23, 2012 stabbing death of 39-year-old Shirley Owens.

Police said McMiller attacked Owens in her Pine Bluff apartment and then took her 16-year-old daughter from the residence, assaulting the teen at a nearby abandoned house and holding her hostage during a standoff with authorities, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

An official in Jefferson County Circuit Judge Jodi Dennis' office said the jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts about 11:15 a.m. Thursday. About an hour later, jurors returned with a sentence of life in prison without parole and three additional life terms to be served consecutively, the official said.

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