VAN BUREN -- Two half brothers charged with capital murder in the shotgun slaying last year of an Alma man pleaded guilty Tuesday to lesser charges in Crawford County Circuit Court and were sentenced to prison.
As 50 prospective jurors waited outside the courtroom in Van Buren on Tuesday morning, Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell sentenced Nicholas Barrows, 20, to 55 years in prison after Barrows agreed to plead guilty to a charge of first-degree murder.
Barrows and Jonathan Bridgewater, 28, were accused in the June 24, 2014, killing of Jamie Plum, 19, on property in rural Crawford County that their grandmother owned and on which they lived. The state accused Barrows of shooting Plum in the chest and face with a shotgun and had alleged that Barrows and Bridgewater then buried Plum's body in a shallow grave to hide the murder.
According to statements made in court, Barrows agreed to accept a 40-year sentence on the murder charge and another 15 years on a charge of committing a felony with a firearm, with the two sentences to run consecutively.
By pleading guilty to first-degree murder, Barrows will be eligible for parole after serving 70 percent of the sentence, or 38.5 years.
If convicted of capital murder, the penalty would have been death or life in prison without parole. Prosecuting Attorney Marc McCune said earlier that the state was not seeking death for Barrows.
The plea bargain was struck Tuesday morning just before jury selection was to begin in the trial. McCune said after court that one of Barrows' attorneys, Katherine Streett with the Arkansas Public Defender Commission, made the plea offer.
Before agreeing to the plea deal, McCune said he consulted Plum's family. He said Plum's mother, Lori Plum of Fayetteville, wanted Barrows to go to prison for life. But she agreed to the plea bargain, he said, understanding there was a risk Barrows could be acquitted during the trial versus knowing he was pleading guilty to a crime and being sentenced to a specific number of years in prison.
A niece of Lori Plum, Heather Williams, sat next to Plum at the prosecutor's table and read her aunt's victim impact statement before Barrows was sentenced. Plum said she was too emotional to read it herself. As Williams read the statement, Plum's shoulders shook as she wept.
During the reading of the statement, Barrows, who had stood in front of the judge's bench facing Cottrell, turned around and faced Lori Plum. The heavyset Barrows, wearing a black suit and close-cropped hair, stood with his head bowed and a sorrowful look on his face.
Barrows apologized for the pain he caused by his actions and said he would have to live with the memory of what he did for the rest of his life.
On Tuesday afternoon, Bridgewater, Barrows' co-defendant and half brother, pleaded guilty to a lesser offense of second-degree murder. Second-degree murder is defined as knowingly causing a death under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, McCune said.
Based on a plea agreement between Bridgewater and the state, Cottrell sentenced Bridgewater to 30 years in prison, the maximum for the offense. McCune said Bridgewater will be eligible for parole after serving 25 percent, or 7.5 years, of his sentence. He also will receive credit for the 407 days he spent in custody before Tuesday's plea.
According to sheriff's investigation records, Barrows wanted to kill Plum for raping Plum's girlfriend, who also was dating Barrows. In a confession Bridgewater gave investigators last spring, he said the rape never occurred, although he said Plum may have beaten the girlfriend.
On the pretense of inviting Plum for a walk in the woods with Barrows and to get high and target shoot on his grandmother's property, the half brothers enticed Plum to the property on June 24, 2014.
Bridgewater, the only brother with a car, dropped off Barrows and Plum then left to pick up his girlfriend from work in Alma.
Bridgewater said Barrows brought out a shotgun from the house and a machete, which he gave to Plum before they headed into the woods.
Bridgewater said he was in a hurry to pick up his girlfriend, Elizabeth Henry, and return to the property. Henry told deputies after she reported the murder a week later that Bridgewater was in a hurry and had made the statement to her that "'the guy is probably dead by now.'"
Shortly after they arrived at the property, 12 acres of land off Arkansas 348 near Rudy, Henry reported hearing a gunshot and a scream, then a second gunshot.
She told authorities she saw Barrows walk out of the woods alone carrying a shotgun and machete. Bridgewater later took her into the woods and showed her Plum's body.
Metro on 08/12/2015