The Pulaski County man accused in the death of his girlfriend Sunday had a cellphone with pictures of her body on it in his possession, a prosecutor said in court Monday.
Parnell Robert May, 41, was arrested Sunday on a first-degree murder charge after deputies found the battered and unconscious victim on the front steps of the couple's home at 4907 Vaughn Road, officials from the Pulaski County sheriff's office said. The residence is in Pulaski County east of the Interstate 40/Interstate 430 interchange.
The sheriff's office identified the victim as 41-year-old Ann Marie Mireles on Monday afternoon. According to a report, Mireles was cold to the touch when authorities found her outside the residence Sunday morning.
Mireles was transported to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. She had been bludgeoned with a pipe and punched in the head multiple times, prosecutor Victoria Gammill said during May's initial appearance in Pulaski County District Court on Monday. He entered an innocent plea during the proceeding.
Authorities found May hiding under a bed at his home Sunday evening, according to a police report. He had blood on his pants and admitted to being in a violent altercation with his girlfriend, Gammill said.
May knew the location of the pipe allegedly used to beat his girlfriend, and he had a cellphone with pictures of her body loaded onto it, Gammill said in court. She also said May has a history of violent crime, including misdemeanor and felony domestic battery charges spanning more than a decade.
After listening to the allegations, Judge Wayne Gruber called them "particularly heinous" and set May's bail at $1 million.
May denied involvement in his girlfriend's death to reporters as he was transported into a patrol car Sunday night, saying, "I did not kill her. I promise to God."
May and the victim were a couple and had just moved into the building Thursday, a neighbor said. She said the woman told her that they had been homeless before in Texas and were just happy to have a place of their own.
A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 6.
Information for this article was contributed by Ryan Tarinelli of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 12/06/2016