Faulkner County Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said Monday afternoon that formal charges still haven't been filed against a teenager held in the shooting deaths of a Conway couple.
Robert and Patricia Cogdell, both 66, were found shot outside their home in Conway on Wednesday afternoon. Conway police believe they died the day before.
Fourteen-year-old Justin Staton, who lived with the Cogdells and for years thought they were his paternal grandparents, has been in the Faulkner County jail since Wednesday. On Friday, a judge in Conway found probable cause for Justin Staton to be held without bail.
State law allows a defendant to be held up to 60 days before formal charges are filed.
Meanwhile, Conway police are waiting to question three Arkansas teenagers who were arrested in Texas early Thursday morning. The Graham Police Department in Texas said in a news release that they were persons of interest in the Conway shooting deaths, and Conway police said in a statement Friday that the three teenagers' names came up during the course of the investigation.
Hunter John Drexler, Conner Hunter Atchley and Anastasia Rose Roberts, all 17, were arrested in Graham on misdemeanor charges after being stopped about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, according to a news release from the Graham Police Department. Two of the teens had suffered gunshot wounds that were not life-threatening, police said.
As the three were getting out of the vehicle, one dropped what police described as a double-edged knife. A second knife, drug paraphernalia and a small amount of what officers believe was marijuana were found during a subsequent search of the vehicle, police said.
The release said Graham police officers were on the lookout for the vehicle after the law enforcement dispatch in Young County, Texas, advised that the vehicle was headed to Graham and "had been reportedly involved in a kidnapping out of Arkansas."
On Monday, Conway police spokesman LaTresha Woodruff said the three teenagers haven't been charged by Conway police.
"They were listed as 'runaways' and some other stuff that had nothing to do with the Conway Police Department," Woodruff said. "So we are not actually responsible for getting them back, but once they get back, we do want to talk to them."
Last week, Justin Staton made his first court appearance by video camera from jail. District Judge David Reynolds set the teenager's plea and arraignment on capital murder charges for Friday.
Information for this article was contributed by Debra Hale-Shelton of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
State Desk on 07/28/2015