PARIS -- A 54-year-old Logan County man was sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in the May 2013 shooting death of a rural Paris man.
A Circuit Court jury of 10 men and two women deliberated for nearly 90 minutes Tuesday before returning the murder conviction against Harry Bodine. Jurors also convicted Bodine of hindering apprehension, a felony.
The jury deliberated for another hour and recommended that Bodine be sentenced to 30 years on the murder conviction and to 10 years on the charge of hindering apprehension.
Circuit Judge Jerry Don Ramey followed the jury's recommendation in sentencing Bodine but gave him credit for the 370 days he spent in the county jail before his trial. Ramey ordered the two sentences to run concurrently.
Bodine, who is in a wheelchair because of an undisclosed disability, showed no emotion as the convictions and sentences were announced. As the noon hour approached Tuesday while the jury deliberated, he told a public defender aide inquiring about lunch for him that he was too nervous to eat.
In the state's closing argument, Prosecuting Attorney Tom Tatum II told jurors he believed Bodine drove to the home of Joe Stapleton, 33, with the intent of killing him. He asked the jury to sentence Bodine to life in prison because the community should be protected from someone who would intentionally shoot another man to death.
He said Bodine took a loaded gun when he and his brother, Brett, drove to the house on May 13, 2013, with the intention of talking to Stapleton about the fact Harry Bodine did not like that Stapleton had beaten his elderly father, Bill Finney.
According to testimony in the three-day trial, Bodine told investigators when he confessed to the shooting in September 2013 that he shot Stapleton in self-defense. He said he took the gun with him because he knew that Stapleton would be drunk and there could be trouble.
When Bodine and his brother arrived at the house, he told investigators, Brett Bodine got out and called out for Stapleton to step out and talk. Stapleton rushed out with a brake drum and charged at Harry Bodine, who was in the driver's seat of the car. Stapleton nearly got to the car before Bodine said he began shooting with his .32-caliber pistol to protect himself. He shot Stapleton seven times.
No brake drum was ever found at the scene.
But Tatum argued that Harry Bodine was the instigator of the events that led to Stapleton's death and that his death could have been avoided.
Tatum told jurors that Bodine simply could have avoided going to Stapleton's home, he could have left the gun at home before going to Stapleton's home, and he could have driven away rather than shoot Stapleton to avoid being attacked.
Tatum also argued that Bodine lied to investigators just after Stapleton's death when he said he had nothing to do with the killing. It wasn't until Bodine's family members linked him to the .32-caliber pistol four months later that Bodine confessed to the shooting, Tatum said.
Bodine's attorney, Public Defender John Irwin of Morrilton, argued that Bodine's story of self-defense was not disputed by any evidence produced by the prosecution and that his story was consistent with the evidence presented in the trial.
Irwin reminded jurors of the statements Bodine made to investigators that Stapleton emerged from his house enraged and charged at him with the brake drum.
Irwin pointed to the state medical examiner's autopsy report on Stapleton that showed there was stippling associated with a bullet wound in Stapleton's torso. Dr. Frank Peretti, of the medical examiner's office, explained during the trial that stippling was small red marks on the skin caused by being struck by burning gunpowder from the firing of a gun. He estimated the stippling on Stapleton's wound showed the gun was less than 2 feet away when he was shot.
Brett Bodine also is charged with first-degree murder and hindering apprehension in Stapleton's death. His trial was severed from that of his brother on Sept. 12, according to court records. A new trial date for him has not been set.
Metro on 10/01/2014