FORT SMITH -- A 53-year-old man was charged Thursday with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of another man during an argument Wednesday evening.
Dwight Neal Hawley also was charged in Sebastian County Circuit Court with first-degree terroristic threatening and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to a news release from the prosecuting attorney's office.
He was being held without bond in the Sebastian County jail Thursday. He is to be arraigned on the charges on July 29.
Hawley is accused of shooting Carlos Araujo-Mejia, 20, in the face with a 20-gauge shotgun at an area near the Poteau River known as South Camp, a Fort Smith police news release said. A probable-cause affidavit filed in court Thursday placed the camp near South Fourth and I streets.
The police news release said authorities were told that Araujo-Mejia and his girlfriend, Mindy Garrett, 32, went to Hawley's shelter in the woods to drink alcohol.
The probable-cause affidavit said an argument broke out, and Hawley threatened to kill Garrett. The argument escalated between Araujo-Mejia and Hawley, and Hawley confessed to taking out the shotgun and killing Araujo-Mejia, the affidavit said.
Garrett fled to a nearby house to call police about 7:30 p.m. Responding officers found Hawley and the shotgun at the scene, according to the release.
NW News on 07/24/2015