Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright has set a June 14 hearing to consider whether two emergency room doctors should be held in contempt of court for not appearing as witnesses at an attempted capital-murder trial last week.
Wright had ordered the arrest of physicians Zachary Gene Roe and C.W. Lyle on Thursday, but the men were out of town when sheriff's deputies went looking for them Friday.
The judge canceled the arrest orders when they came to court voluntarily on Monday after learning they were wanted men. If the judge finds the doctors in contempt, he can jail them up to a month and fine them up to $500.
After hearing testimony Monday that another doctor at the hospital where they work had accepted Lyle's subpoena while telling a sheriff's deputy he had the authority to accept it on Lyle's behalf, the judge told the doctor, who was wearing hospital scrubs, "that might let you off the hook" on a contempt charge.
Defense attorney Leo Monterrey had asked for the judge to order the men's arrest, saying he had subpoenaed the doctors to testify about treatment for 30-year-old Shannon Nicole Cox, but they had not come to court.
Monterrey's client, Joshua Matthew Padilla, 30, of Sherwood is charged with attempted capital-murder, kidnapping and first-degree battery for his role in Cox's June 2015 abduction and shooting.
The married mother of two was shot in the face by another man, Nick Edward McDaniel, then thrown off a Pulaski County bridge. She hid in the creek underneath until daybreak. Then, bloody, muddy and half-naked, she flagged down a passing motorist on Fortson Road who got her to safety.
Monterrey told jurors that McDaniel had bullied and threatened Padilla, sometimes at gunpoint, into going along with Cox's kidnapping and battery.
The lawyer said Cox's memory of the ordeal was so impaired by the drugs she'd consumed that night and the trauma of being beaten, bound and shot that her recollection of what Padilla had done could not be trusted.
Cox testified last week that she thought Padilla was her friend and that she hoped he had not done what he was charged with. But she told jurors that he had beaten her, gagged and blindfolded her and had helped McDaniel throw her off the bridge after McDaniel shot her.
She told jurors that she didn't think Padilla had hit her as hard as he could have during the beating, saying she believed he had saved her from a worse beating by McDaniel.
The judge declared a mistrial before the defense could put on its evidence.
McDaniel, 37, of North Little Rock pleaded guilty last year to the same charges Padilla faces in exchange for a 40-year prison term. Padilla's girlfriend, Samantha LeeAnn McClain, 30, of North Little Rock, pleaded guilty in exchange for a 20-year sentence.
A motive for the attack was not clear. The defense has said that McDaniel was enraged with Cox after catching her stealing from him and learning that she might have infected him with hepatitis-C during sex.
Cox denied stealing anything from McDaniel, and said he had known that she had the virus but had unprotected sex anyway.
Metro on 06/07/2016