Woman’s body sent to lab for ID
PALESTINE — Arkansas State Police sent the body of a woman found Wednesday morning on Interstate 40 in St. Francis County to the state Crime Laboratory to be identified.
A truck driver spotted the body near the outside lane of the interstate near Palestine about 1 a.m., state police spokesman Bill Sadler said in a news release. The body was found east of a rest stop at mile marker 236, he said.
The body is of a small, white woman between 25 and 35 years old with blond hair. On her left arm is a tattoo depicting a rose with the names “Shannon,” “Samantha” and “Deanna.” She was wearing jean shorts and a lilac-colored top, Sadler said. Police found Justin cowboy boots near the body.
Sadler asked that anyone with information about the death or the identification of the woman to contact the Arkansas State Highway Patrol Division, Troop D, at Forrest City at (870) 633-1454.
— ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Death of inmate prompts inquiry
Special agents of the Arkansas State Police are investigating the death of a prison inmate at the Varner Unit.
John Dobson III, 29, died at 5:17 p.m. Tuesday, said Shea Wilson, spokesman for the Department of Correction.
His death is being investigated as a homicide, she added.
Wilson said she couldn’t answer questions about how or where Dobson died at the prison unit.
“There is nothing to indicate that a weapon was used,” she said. “Beyond that, the state police is investigating the circumstances.”
State police spokesman Bill Sadler said: “A manner and cause of death will be determined by the Arkansas state Crime Laboratory. Meanwhile, agents have been working closely with ADC personnel as the investigation continues today.”
Dobson was serving a five-year sentence for a theft-of-property conviction out of Independence County. He entered the prison system Jan. 8, 2013. His sentence discharge date would have been Nov. 15, 2017.
— ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
McDaniel cedes time in ID appeal
The state’s top law enforcement official and attorney announced Wednesday that he would “yield” his argument time during the state’s voter identification law arguments to attorneys with the secretary of state’s office.
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel represents the Board of Election Commissioners, who are named in the voter ID case set for oral arguments with the Arkansas Supreme Court on Oct. 2.
McDaniel said Secretary of State Mark Martin’s staff attorney asked if that office could handle the case.
McDaniel said he didn’t object to the request but also consulted with the sponsor of the 2013 law, Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest.
The case challenges the ruling made by Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Tim Fox in May that the state’s voter identification law was unconstitutional. Fox suspended the ruling while it is being appealed.
— ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Plant species’ status studied
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing the threatened species status of a plant found in Arkansas and three other Southern states as a part of a five-year review updating classifications under the Endangered Species Act.
The agency is reviewing 17 endangered and 10 threatened species in the southeast and Puerto Rico as a part of the review, according to an agency news release.
The Geocarpon minimum is found in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Texas. In Arkansas, it’s found in the pine flatwoods of southern Arkansas, in the Warren Prairie Natural Area.
According to an article on the agency’s website, the Geocarpon minimum is “intolerant of competition” and has specific habitat requirements that stop its spread at the edge of the salty saline oil barrens.
The agency review also tracks the species’ recovery process, the release said. That information can be used to guide future conservation efforts, including funding and permitting decisions.
— ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
2 in state killed by falling trees
MENA — Polk County authorities said a 6-year-old boy was crushed to death by a tree that his stepfather was working to remove.
Polk County Chief Deputy Scott Sawyer said Damion Perales was outside with his family Saturday when the accident occurred. He said Damion’s stepfather was cutting down a tree in their yard and it twisted as it fell into another tree.
Sawyer said Damion ran into the path of the falling tree. He died at a Little Rock hospital Tuesday.
In a separate accident, a 65-year-old man was killed Tuesday in Union County when the tree he was cutting fell on top of him. The Union County sheriff’s office said Raymond Cossey was trying to remove a tree that was leaning on a chicken house when the tree fell on him.
— THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Assault increases inmate’s cell time
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — An inmate at a federal prison hospital in Springfield has been sentenced to nearly 20 years for assaulting a counselor at the facility.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Willard Begay, 34, must also pay $2,500 for the counselor’s injuries under the sentence he received Thursday.
The attack happened in October 2012 at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, where Begay was serving more than seven years for an assault in Arizona.
Begay was convicted earlier this year of punching the counselor and smashing a computer printer on the man’s face, breaking a bone near his eye.
Prosecutors said the counselor was meeting with Begay to discuss problems he was having with other inmates. The counselor was handcuffing Begay before his move to another unit when the attack occurred.
— THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tulsa couple held
in boy’s sex abuse
TULSA — Police have arrested a Tulsa couple who they say sexually abused a 10-year-old relative of the woman.
KOTV-TV, Channel 6 reported Wednesday that the man and woman were arrested after the boy told his father he was abused. Police said the abuse happened at multiple locations. They said the male suspect admitted that his girlfriend had sex with the boy while he was present.
The Associated Press is not naming the couple to protect the child’s identity.
The woman is jailed on five counts of sexual abuse of a child in lieu of $2.5 million bond. The man is jailed on two counts in lieu of $1 million bond.
— THE ASSOCIATED PRESS