Suspect arrested; Realtor missing

9/29/14
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STEPHEN B. THORNTON
Volunteer searchers look through a field along Scott Road just east of Highway 165 near Scott Monday in the search for missing realtor Beverly Carter.
9/29/14 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STEPHEN B. THORNTON Volunteer searchers look through a field along Scott Road just east of Highway 165 near Scott Monday in the search for missing realtor Beverly Carter.

Police arrested the Jacksonville man Monday suspected of kidnapping North Little Rock real estate agent Beverly Carter.

An unknown man called Little Rock police Monday morning to report a possible sighting of Arron Lewis, 33, of Jacksonville. Lewis was wanted by police for questioning in the Thursday disappearance of Realtor Beverly Carter.

Audio: 911 call about Arron Lewis sighting in west Little Rock

Video available Watch Video

Little Rock police arrested Arron Lewis on Monday morning after witnesses spotted him near the intersection of Green Mountain Drive and Rainwood Road, according to a statement from department spokesman Lt. Sidney Allen. After calling 911 about 9:43, the witness and a friend approached Lewis, who then fled to the Pleasant Pointe Apartments at 1602 Green Mountain.

When officers arrived, witnesses pointed them to the apartment complex's manager's office. As officers closed in on the building, Lewis jumped out of a first-story window and tried to flee around the side of the building but was quickly apprehended, according to Allen.

Pulaski County sheriff's spokesman Lt. Carl Minden said Lewis was transported to the Pulaski County jail, where investigators began interrogating him about Carter's whereabouts.

Monday evening, Minden said the interview was still ongoing.

A kidnapping warrant was issued for Lewis' arrest Sunday after sheriff's investigators determined he was a person of interest in the disappearance of Carter, a real estate agent and broker who disappeared Thursday evening after she went to show a house in Scott.

Search efforts in and around Scott that began Friday morning continued Monday, with about 75 volunteers and multiple county search and rescue teams retreading the rural area from 9 a.m. until nightfall.

Lewis, 33, has an extensive criminal history, stretching back more than a decade. Paroled from a robbery conviction in Louisiana in April 2003, Lewis' parole supervision was transferred to Utah Adult Probation and Parole, said spokesman Brooke Adams.

When Lewis was charged with burglary five months later, Utah sent a parole violation notice to Louisiana. The agency noted the burglary charge, failure to maintain employment and absconding.

After Louisiana issued an arrest warrant, Utah closed Lewis' case in November 2003, Adams said.

That same month, Lewis pleaded guilty to a federal charge of interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle in Missouri, court records show.

In that case, Lewis had stolen a motorcycle and driven across state lines. When he was arrested, officers found a sketch of an explosive device, handcuffs, a law enforcement badge and a demand note that was going to be used in a bank robbery.

Lewis' roommate told authorities that Lewis possessed an explosive device. When questioned, Lewis said he had intended to use it in a bank robbery.

On March 11, 2004, he was sentenced to time served with three years of supervised release, court records show.

On April 28, 2004, however, his supervised release was revoked when Lewis stole a motorcycle in Kansas City and drove it to Texas. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison and a year of supervised release, according to court records.

In November 2006, Lewis's supervision was transferred to the Western District of Louisiana. There, Lewis was assigned to a halfway house.

He was kicked out in January 2007, however because of "noncompliant and uncooperative behavior," court records state. The U.S. Probation Department was unaware of his whereabouts until Lewis was arrested a month later by the Ouachita Parish sheriff's office.

During this encounter with law enforcement, Lewis refused to pull over when an officer tried to stop him for failing to dim his lights. Lewis led officers on a high-speed chase and rammed a police car several times. He was later convicted of aggravated flight from a law enforcement officer.

The U.S. Probation Department subsequently revoked his release and sentenced Lewis to 18 months in prison followed by 18 months of supervised release, court records show.

Lewis was no longer under federal supervision when he was arrested and convicted in Arkansas in 2011 on theft of property and theft by receiving charges, said Dina Tyler, deputy director for the Arkansas Department of Community Correction. He was sentenced to six years in prison on those charges but was paroled in 2013.

Although the Pulaski County sheriff's office has not said how Lewis came to be considered a person of interest in Carter's disappearance, he was already considered such when he was involved in an automobile collision Sunday morning on Jacksonville-Cato Road in Sherwood. Lewis was taken to Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock for examination, but left the hospital.

Minden issued a statement emphasizing that Lewis was not under arrest or in custody when he left the hospital.

On his Facebook page, Lewis admitted in October 2013 to being a seven-time felon.

He went on to add:

"So if anyone would like to judge me for my past, remember that i don't do anything any more. I'm happy with my life and its not yours so it goes back to that saying...if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything.

"I have a wonderful woman who loves me and i love her, i have a house (paid for), my jeep and motorcycle (paid for), i'm on parole and do what i'm suppose to, i don't do drugs and i'm happy so before you judge me for who i was, look at who i am"

Lewis was released from the Arkansas Department of Correction on Aug. 8, 2013. He had been sentenced in late 2011 to six years for theft by receiving and theft of property in Northwest Arkansas.

While in prison, Lewis received several disciplinary citations, but those stemmed from mouthing off to correctional officers -- not violent behavior, said Tyler.

Lewis was a "good parolee," by the agency's standards, Tyler said. He met regularly with his parole officer, was current on his fees and had a job at Argos Concrete.

Lewis moved several times without notifying his supervising officer within the required 24-hour time period, but he did always call the agency with his changes in address, Tyler said.

Neighbors to Lewis and the woman he identified as his wife, Crystal Lowery, said the relationship was apparently volatile.

Gerry Ciccel, a disabled veteran who lives next door to Lewis' home, said screaming, yelling and slammed doors could often be heard coming from the house, and that Lowery would often ask to borrow her phone to call "one agency or another."

Ciccel said Lewis had moved into the rental property on Randall Drive about a year and a half ago. She said he had been forthcoming about his checkered past, and his intentions for turning his life around.

"When he first moved in, he told us a lot about his life. He told us he had a record, that he was a parolee, and what he wanted to do with his life," Ciccel said. "But that did not come to pass."

In one of the most recent public posts on Lewis' Facebook page, July 19, Lewis wrote:

"Got a new job this last week working for Argos.... a cement company. Back to driving trucks on Monday and a much better pay check. Life is getting better. Got to stay positive and hope everything stays that way," Lewis wrote.

"Never too late to change and make a new start!"

Lewis' demeanor had changed drastically over the past month, Ciccel said.

"He has been acting weird lately," she said. "Like his head was somewhere totally different."

Ciccel said that Lewis called her Thursday -- the day Carter disappeared -- and asked her to help tow his car out of a "mud patch." Ciccel said she refused his request, saying her car was too new, and didn't have a tow bar.

Despite the news of Lewis' apprehension, search efforts for Carter, 49, continued Monday. David Goldstein, a real estate broker who said he had worked closely with Carter over the past 11 years, said about 75 people were continuing a foot search Monday for any sign of Carter. Although the number was a significant drop from the 250 volunteers involved in Sunday's search, Monday's numbers included professional search and rescue personnel from Garland, Van Buren, Clark and Logan counties.

Searchers were combing the area in expansive circles from the house in Scott, a rural community of about 70 people, where Carter had planned to meet a potential client about 5:30 p.m. Thursday. When Carter didn't return home or answer her phone for several hours, her husband, Carl Carter, drove to the house at 14202 Old River Drive, where he found his wife's abandoned car. The house was empty.

With headquarters on an asphalt road in an otherwise undeveloped lot across from Stone Links Golf Course in North Little Rock, searchers also used horses, boats, and all-terrain vehicles. Sunday's search covered about 10 square miles between Interstate 440 and Walkers Corner Road to the east in North Little Rock. Monday's search began working south from Sunday's stopping point near the intersection of North Walker Corner Road and Bearskin Lake Loop Road.

Andrew Darr, a volunteer search team leader from North Little Rock, organized about 20 volunteers into "command lines" Monday morning, spaced about 10 yards apart as they trod slowly through the soft loam of harvested corn fields along the eastern edge of Walkers Corner Road.

"We're looking for anything," Darr said. "We don't have any precluded ideas or assumptions whatsoever. We're looking for anything out of place, or extraordinary, something that could maybe send law enforcement on a direction. It could be something as small as the back of an earring thrown out of a car. Tire tracks leading off the road. We're just looking for something that doesn't seem ordinary."

Carl Carter Jr., the son of Beverly and Carl Carter, remained at the search headquarters throughout the morning.

"I'm falling apart," he said. "But it's all right."

"We're really hopeful now that they've got the guy in custody," Carter said. "Our hope is that he will just very quickly tell them where she is, so that the cops will get right on that, and we can get her back today. That's our hope."

Carter said the ordeal had nearly exhausted him.

"I'm getting about two or three hours of sleep a night, and it's taken its toll," he said. "I want my mom back."

Goldstein said Monday night that search efforts would not resume today.

"Our plan right now is to debrief the sheriff's office on what we've found over these past few days," Goldstein said. "We'll re-establish a search area where they want it, if they require it."

Metro on 09/30/2014

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