Correction: Dominic Hobson was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery in a Garland County jury trial in the death of Mary Adams and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. The nature of her adjudication and her sentence were described incorrectly in articles Tuesday and Thursday about the trial of Samuel Conway in Adams’ killing.
HOT SPRINGS -- No one disputes what happened at 117 Maurice St. on the night of March 14, 2005.
Police, prosecutors and defense attorneys all agree that brothers Detric and Samuel Conway went to the home of their cousin, Eric Adams, with a plan to burglarize the house. A woman named Dominic Hobson went with them.
Eric Adams was at work, but his mother, Mary Adams, was there babysitting Eric's daughter, 3, and son, 2.
In a matter of minutes, Mary Adams lay dead on the living room floor while her grandchildren sobbed hysterically.
Prosecuting Attorney Steve Oliver didn't think there was enough evidence to convict Detric Conway, so the criminal case against him was dropped. Hobson eventually pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated robbery. She remains in prison.
Nine years later, Samuel Conway is in court, and his attorneys are hoping to convince a Hot Springs jury that Detric Conway forced his brother and Hobson into participating in the robbery.
It's called an affirmative defense, with the argument being that Samuel Conway was under duress -- fearing either injury or death -- when he and Hobson went along with his brother's plans.
The only evidence in the trial that began Wednesday is a statement that Samuel Conway gave to police. In that statement, he implicated himself, his brother and Hobson in the robbery. He pointed to Detric Conway as the shooter.
There were no fingerprints linking the three to the crime. The murder weapon was never found. DNA tests of a cigarette butt and other items yielded nothing.
Defense attorneys sought to suppress Samuel Conway's statement, arguing that too many documents have disappeared. The Miranda waiver that police said he signed -- gone. The original statement -- gone. There's no audio. No video.
So, according to the defense team, the case boils down to a photocopy of Samuel Conway's statement, given nine years ago, the testimony of the two former detectives who took it and whether jurors believe any of it.
Eric Adams remained stoic through his testimony Wednesday, until he was asked to describe the moment he found his mother's body. For several long minutes, he cried. He tried to testify again but continued crying.
At the time of his mother's death, Eric Adams was working two jobs. By day, he worked at a sheet-metal factory. By night, he was an assistant manager at KFC. His wife worked, as well. Still, money was tight. So he started selling marijuana on the side, he said.
Eric Adams told jurors Wednesday that Detric Conway found out that he was dealing drugs. And where there are drugs, there's money.
"I felt like it was my fault," he said of the robbery and his mother's death. "Because they knew I had some marijuana, that I was selling it."
Samuel Conway told police that he, Detric Conway and Hobson were at Hobson's house when his brother proposed that they "hit a lick" -- slang for stealing -- at Eric Adams' home.
When Mary Adams opened the door, she found one of her nephews and Hobson on the porch. Hobson told Mary Adams that she needed a restroom. Hobson worked with Eric Adams at KFC.
Mary Adams invited the pair in, and Hobson headed straight for the bathroom. Just as she prepared to lock the front door, Detric Conway burst in, brandishing a sawed-off .22-caliber rifle, according to what Samuel Conway told police.
Detric Conway shot his aunt in the face, in front of Samuel Conway and the two cowering toddlers, Samuel Conway said.
Mary Adams fell to the floor, and the children started crying.
At that point, Samuel Conway told police that Detric Conway ordered him and Hobson, who had returned from the bathroom, to: "Go look for weed and money."
Detric Conway scoured the kitchen, emptying the freezer in the process, his brother told police. Samuel Conway and Hobson ransacked the master bedroom.
Soon, a car's headlights shone into the living room window. Panicked, the trio shoved a love seat in front of the door and fled through a rear bedroom window, Samuel Conway told police.
They reconvened at Hobson's house. Then, Samuel Conway told police, the three returned to Eric Adams' home to finish what they started. They left with three stuffed pillowcases.
The trio took their loot to Samuel Conway's mother's home, where they divided up the cash they had found.
Detric Conway had found the marijuana in a shoebox, already packaged into rolled-up baggies, Samuel Conway told police. Detric Conway also snagged a pair of men's Reeboks, a watch and a piggy bank, his brother told detectives. Hobson took a pair of women's shoes. Samuel Conway had left with a PlayStation and some games. He would end up pawning them three weeks later.
Former Hot Springs detective Jerry Cotton worked the case from the beginning. Finally, in late 2005, an interview yielded the names of the three people who would become suspects in Mary Adams' murder: the Conway brothers and Hobson.
Cotton interviewed Hobson on Dec. 5, 2005. He interviewed Samuel Conway on Dec. 13, 2005.
"You determined from your investigation that Detric was the shooter, right?" defense attorney Scott Brisendine asked Wednesday.
"That's correct," Cotton replied.
He further testified that Oliver didn't think he had enough evidence to "go after" Detric Conway. But Cotton didn't just want Detric Conway in prison. "I wanted all three of them charged," he said.
Hobson finally pleaded guilty.
In 2010, Samuel Conway was charged with capital murder and aggravated robbery in Mary Adams' death. By that time, five people in rural Garland County would be dead, also victims of a robbery.
Samuel Conway currently faces charges in that case, as well. That trial is scheduled for April.
If convicted of Mary Adams' death, he faces a sentence of life without parole.
State Desk on 11/20/2014