A 41-year-old Little Rock woman who's been in and out of prison since her 2001 second-degree murder conviction will get credit against a jury-imposed fine in that case while she's in prison on new drug charges, a Pulaski County Circuit judge ruled Wednesday.
Martha Ann Owen was sentenced to three months in prison in March for her April 11, 2014, arrest for public intoxication and methamphetamine possession after causing a disturbance at Aimco Equipment Co. at 10001 Colonel Glenn Road in Little Rock.
In 2001, Owens was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison with a $15,000 fine.
Her attorney, Bobbi Patterson, told Circuit Judge Herb Wright on Wednesday that Owen will have to serve at least four more months in prison before she faces a parole hearing that will determine whether she should spend another year in the penitentiary for violating her parole for her previous convictions.
Owen had been working at community-service projects to reduce the $15,000 fine and court costs, Patterson said.
Court records show Owen was arrested in July for failure to pay, and owed $15,070 in fines and court costs. The judge allowed her to perform community service in lieu of payment, but she still owes much of that money -- more than $10,000, prosecutors said.
She can earn $40 to $80 of credit against her obligation every day she is incarcerated, so she has the potential to clear the debt if she spends the next 18 months or so behind bars, her attorney said.
Patterson said drug addiction has consumed most of Owen's life despite her struggles to overcome it.
Owen has acknowledged using methamphetamine, crack cocaine and prescription medications regularly since she was at least 22 years old and has gone through several bouts of homelessness, court filings show.
At her April 2001 trial for killing Joe Dan Hines Jr., 33, Owen told jurors that she was a crack addict who used the drug every 15 minutes, court records show. Hines had been shot once in the face, and prosecutors told jurors Owen had killed him because he'd refused to give her more crack cocaine when she'd run out.
Owen told jurors she had moved in with Hines in the summer of 1999 when he was supplying her with crack. She said he'd become abusive and controlling by the time of the February 2000 killing at their Dryad Lane home in Little Rock.
She testified that she'd shot him in self-defense because she felt he was a threat to her.
One witness, Jamie Shaddox of North Little Rock, told police that Owen had appeared to be upset about something and had picked up a gun and unholstered it before calling out to Hines. Shaddox said the look on Owen's face scared her, so she left the left room as Hines was walking in.
Shaddox said she heard a noise like a firecracker as she was walking away, then turned back to see Hines on the floor and bleeding from the head. She and two other men in the house ran away, she said.
Owen was charged with first-degree murder, but the jury convicted her of second-degree murder before imposing the fine and prison sentence.
While on parole in 2009, she was sent back to prison after being arrested with methamphetamine in a meth lab hidden in a hotel room, court records show.
Little Rock police, responding to a fire alarm at the Motel 6 at 10524 W. Markham St. in April 2009, found Owen and two others in a room filled with heavy white smoke, according to court records.
Owen had four syringes and more methamphetamine hidden under her shirt when she was booked into the jail, court records show.
Owen subsequently pleaded guilty to attempt to manufacture meth, unlawful use of another's property and possession of a controlled substance in October 2009 in exchange for a five-year prison sentence with another five years suspended, court records show.
The two people with Owen also were sent to prison for their participation in the lab. Jeremy Lewis Earl of Benton and Melody Lynn Baker of Little Rock, both 34, were each sentenced in 2009 to eight years in prison with six years suspended.
Metro on 05/19/2016