Lawyer: Client's rights violated

Delay in murder case said unjust

An attorney for the man convicted in 2013 of an "execution-style" double homicide in a Conway home more than 10 years earlier argued Thursday that his client's rights were violated by a nearly decade-long delay in his prosecution.

But the state's attorney told the Arkansas Supreme Court in oral arguments that Richard Conte's conviction should be upheld.

Conte, who was from Duck Creek, Utah, and practiced medicine in Nevada, was convicted of two counts of capital murder in Faulkner County Circuit Court and sentenced to life in prison for the May 2002 shooting deaths of Carter Elliott, 49, and Timmy Robertson, 25.

Conway police officers found the pair with close-range bullet holes in the backs of their heads.

On Thursday, Little Rock attorney Patrick Benca argued that there was no direct evidence placing Conte in Arkansas at the time of the May 2002 murders.

He also argued that the Arkansas Supreme Court should reverse the guilty verdict, or remand the case back to the lower court, because Conte's constitutional rights to a fair trial and due process were violated by an investigation that went through two prosecuting attorneys without any action.

By the time current Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland filed charges in 2012, no new evidence had been gathered, Benca said, and a key alibi witness that saw Conte near his home at the time of the murder had died.

"[The alibi witness], that had to be a motivating factor for [prosecutors]," Benca said. "It was a large part of why prosecutors didn't go for [prosecution]."

The lower-court judge, Charles Clawson Jr., agreed that the nine-year delay and the death of Conte's alibi witness, William Pringle -- who testified that he'd seen Conte in his truck several times during the time of the killing -- did prejudice Conte's case.

But ultimately, Clawson did not dismiss Conte's criminal charges. In Arkansas, he said, delayed prosecutions can be thrown out only if the defendant was prejudiced by the delay and the prosecutor lacked a satisfactory reason for waiting so long.

Clawson ruled the prosecutor's delay was justified because the investigation never ended.

Rebecca Kane, an attorney with the Arkansas attorney general's office, argued that the delay and the alibi witness's death did not bias the case against Conte because, by Conte's own testimony, his truck was broken down at the time Pringle claimed to have seen him driving it.

She also argued that the investigation was "ongoing" and that even though the two prosecutors prior to Hiland passed on the case, a prosecutor is entitled to discretion.

"It's a subjective determination," Kane said. "I don't know what triggered [the charges being filed]."

Benca said that the trigger was pretty clear. The charges were filed Aug. 26, 2011, two days before Conte was set to be released from a Nevada prison after his conviction for kidnapping his ex-wife, Lark Swartz, whose first husband was killed, presumably by Conte, just weeks before the kidnapping.

Swartz, who had been married to Elliott for 18 years before their divorce, met and then married Conte in late 2001. They separated after a few months because of Conte's odd behavior, including his large stash of weapons inside their home, as well as a "meat hook" that hung in the bedroom, according to court testimony.

They were divorced by late spring, according to court records.

In May 2002, when Elliott and Robertson's bodies were found, investigators focused on several local suspects. Elliott had run up large gambling debts and owed people a lot of money, defense attorneys argued.

In June, Conte kidnapped Swartz, and upon his arrest, investigators found several items linking him to Conway, including a map of the area, information about local radio frequencies and the address of Elliott's home.

During the trial, and again Thursday, Conte's attorneys argued the "circumstantial" evidence was not enough. Testimony portraying Conte as a man who fantasized about being a CIA operative was irrelevant, they argued.

On Thursday, Benca questioned why the court blocked testimony about Elliott's gambling and business associates but accepted testimony from two convicted felons who shared jail space with Conte in Faulkner County jail. The convicts testified that Conte admitted to the double slaying.

"It's clear they had some motives other than to help the state. They wanted out [of jail]," Benca said. "Their backgrounds, their motivations ... when you put those individuals on the stand, it's not an issue of evidence but ... credibility."

Justice Jo Hart appeared to take issue with the state's argument that it had justification in the nine-year delay before filing charges.

"What special leads did they identify that was so critical to wait nine years?" Hart asked. "Absolutely nothing. In a conclusory fashion, he just said 'I continue to investigate.'"

Kane said that neither investigators nor the prosecutor's office knew that Pringle had died when going forward with charges against Conte.

It is unclear how soon the court will render a decision.

Conte, now 65, uses a wheelchair because of health problems and remains at the Brickeys prison unit in Lee County.

Metro on 04/24/2015

Upcoming Events