HOT SPRINGS -- Shalawn Goodman knew that her cousin, Samuel Conway, would have to face the consequences for his involvement in the murder of her mother -- a woman who loved to color with her grandchildren and fry chicken for her large family.
Still, Goodman cried Thursday afternoon when Conway, 28, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life without parole. Conway also received a 49-year term for aggravated robbery.
"Sam, he's my cousin. It's just hard," Goodman explained, wiping away tears. "Me, personally? I feel like he's really sorry for what he did. I still love him. This was coming to him, but ... he told me in there, 'I'm sorry for what I did.' And I really forgive him."
Other family members felt the same way, nodding emphatically as Goodman spoke.
"Now the other two" -- her voice trailed off with a note of disdain as she referred to the others accused in her mother's March 2005 shooting death: Conway's older brother, Detric, and a female friend named Dominic Hobson.
All three were present when Mary Adams, 50, was shot in the face in her son's home while baby-sitting two of her grandchildren, said prosecutors and police, who also contend that Detric Conway -- nine years older than Samuel Conway -- was the triggerman.
Detric Conway is the only one of the three, however, to avoid a trial in the case. Prosecutors dropped the charges against him May 20, 2013, citing insufficient evidence.
Hobson is currently serving a 50-year sentence for first-degree murder and aggravated robbery for her role in Adams' death. She also was given a criminal enhancement because the crimes were committed in front of children.
Samuel Conway also faces a retrial in April in the 2009 slayings of the Gentry family and their son's girlfriend in Pearcy.
In that case, Conway was convicted in June 2011 on five counts of capital murder, two counts of aggravated residential burglary and four counts of theft of property in the Pearcy case. He was sentenced to five life terms without parole and two additional life sentences plus 90 years. But on Nov. 8, 2012, the Arkansas Supreme Court reversed the convictions and ordered a new trial, saying the lower court had erred when it twice denied defense attorneys' requests to dismiss a juror.
Detric Conway is currently serving a 36-year term in federal prison for the 2010 armed robberies of Hometown Pharmacy in Hot Springs and Phil's Eastside Pharmacy in Glenwood.
A .40-caliber Glock recovered after the Hometown robbery turned out to be the weapon used in the unrelated shooting death of a Malvern man. Detric Conway was tried for capital murder in the Malvern case, but a Garland County jury acquitted him after only 30 minutes of deliberation May 16, 2013.
Samuel Conway's conviction Thursday was based solely on a statement he gave to Hot Springs police detectives Dec. 13, 2005, nine months after the body of Mary Adams was found on the living-room floor.
None of the evidence collected from the crime scene linked the Conways or Hobson to the killing, according to testimony. The murder weapon was never found. And attempts to match fingerprints proved unsuccessful.
Testimony on Thursday revealed that additional evidence -- items later recovered from a pawnshop and identified by family members as Mary Adams' belongings -- was lost by police and never sent to the Arkansas Crime Laboratory for testing.
It wasn't until detectives got a tip and interviewed Samuel Conway that they saw a potential break in the case.
Initially, defense attorneys requested that Conway's statement be suppressed, citing the disappearance of several documents, such as the Miranda waiver that police said he signed before the interview. Conway's original signed statement also was lost by police. A photocopy was used in the trial.
The court denied the motion to suppress the statement. So the defense team relied on what's called an affirmative defense, with the argument being that Conway was under duress -- fearing either injury or death -- when he and Hobson went along with his brother's plans to burglarize the home of their cousin, Eric Adams.
In his statement to police, Samuel Conway said he and Hobson agreed to participate in what was supposed to be the burglary of an empty house only because Detric Conway, while holding a .22-caliber rifle, had threatened them, saying: "Y'all don't want this used on you, do you?"
When they arrived at the Adams home, Conway and Hobson knocked on the door, Samuel Conway told police. Meanwhile, Detric Conway put on a ski mask and hid around the corner of the house.
When Mary Adams opened the door, Hobson asked to use the restroom. Mary Adams let the pair in, but just as she prepared to lock the door, Detric Conway charged in and shot his aunt in the face, Samuel Conway said in his statement.
In closing arguments, prosecutors scoffed at this claim. "There's no evidence ... there's no testimony to show that Sam was afraid of his brother," Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Joe Graham told the jury.
Defense attorney Christopher Nebben countered with sarcasm. "First of all, there's hardly any evidence in this case," he told jurors. "You don't have much to work with."
The only evidence, he said, is Samuel Conway's statement. And if jurors believed the statement is sufficient evidence to convict, they also should believe Conway's contention that he felt forced into the robbery, Nebben said.
"In this case, justice is Detric Conway," Nebben said. "You know what the problem is?"
He pointed at Samuel Conway.
"That's not Detric."
State Desk on 11/21/2014