Man pleads guilty to killing pregnant woman

SEARCY — A Searcy man has pleaded guilty to killing a woman and her unborn child and was sentenced to prison.

The Daily Citizen reported that a judge sentenced 29-year-old Benjamin M. Peirce to serve 30 years in the Arkansas Department of Correction. White County prosecutors downgraded two counts of capital murder to two counts of second-degree murder as part of a plea deal.

Peirce was charged in the April 2013 death of 34-year-old Crystal Timberlake in Bald Knob. Timberlake was four months pregnant.

Peirce was also charged with one count of attempted murder for the shooting of 48-year-old Robert Wayne Dixon. Prosecutors changed that charge to first-degree battery.

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