JONESBORO -- Richard Jordan Tarver told investigators he randomly chose a 90-year-old Bay woman to kill in July 2015 to see what it would feel like so he could prepare for an end-of-the-world scenario.
In a taped confession played Tuesday at Tarver's capital murder trial in Craighead County Circuit Court, Tarver, 31, of Bay, told investigator Justin Rolland that he "binge-watched" the cable television program The Walking Dead on July 2, 2015.
The show, a 6-year-old series on AMC, features people trying to survive a zombie apocalypse.
The next day, Tarver decided to kill Lavinda Counce, who lived about a block from Tarver and his family, he told police.
"You just picked her?" Craighead County sheriff's investigator Aaron Davis asked Tarver when Tarver was arrested July 17 for the slaying.
"She was the closest thing to a zombie you can get," Tarver replied. "I see people on television all the time. I can't explain. I just wanted to see what it was like. I wanted to see what happened."
Police said Tarver went to Counce's home in Bay, knocked on her door and then forced her into the trunk of her car July 3, 2015. He drove to a cornfield east of the Craighead County town, forced her to walk through three rows of corn and shot her in the back of the head with a .38-caliber handgun.
Tarver then drove Counce's car to NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital on U.S. 49 in Jonesboro and left her car in the hospital's parking lot. He walked to the home of his friend, Korrie Phillips, near the hospital and asked for a ride back to Bay, prosecutors said.
Authorities found Counce's body in the cornfield July 12. Tarver was arrested five days later after Phillips told authorities Tarver was at his home July 3.
Prosecutors showed the 59-minute interview between Tarver and investigators Davis and Rolland on the fourth day of Tarver's trial. Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington of Jonesboro is seeking the death penalty.
Randel Miller, a Jonesboro attorney representing Tarver, said authorities threatened Tarver with the arrest of his wife, Samantha Tarver, and the loss of their two children if he didn't confess to the slaying. He said Rolland also coerced answers from Tarver, including choreographing Tarver into demonstrating the angle of how he shot Counce.
As the video played Tuesday afternoon, family members of Counce's who attended the trial quietly cried and hugged one another.
Tarver spoke slowly on the video, often pausing and speaking in quiet monotones. He also contradicted himself, saying at first that he did not touch Counce when he took her from her home and then admitting to helping her in and out of her car's trunk.
Rolland testified Tuesday that at first he didn't believe Tarver's obsession with the zombie television program and thought robbery was the motive for the shooting.
In the video, Tarver told investigators he had no "plan" for abducting Counce. When he found $50 in her purse after he shot her, that was a "bonus," he said. Rolland said Tarver admitted to using the $50 a day after he killed Counce to buy supplies for his 9-year-old daughter's birthday party.
"When I woke up [July 3, 2015], something said 'Get up and go,'" Tarver said in the video. "And I did."
Davis testified Tuesday that Tarver showed no remorse "whatsoever."
Rolland added in his testimony that Tarver looked like the "world had been lifted off his shoulders" after he confessed.
As the video played, Tarver, wearing a long-sleeved olive green shirt and dress slacks, sat quietly and stared away from the video screen.
On cross-examination, Miller asked Rolland why he did not record a conversation he had with Tarver after he was arrested and sitting in a deputy's car. He also chastised Rolland for not having Tarver sign a form waiving his Miranda rights and questioned the investigator about why he did not consider Phillips a suspect in the slaying.
Earlier Tuesday, Phillips testified that when Tarver arrived at his mobile home on July 3, Tarver said he had been dropped off at the nearby hospital to visit a friend and needed a ride home.
Police canvassed a residential area near the hospital after seeing a video of someone parking Counce's car in the hospital parking lot and walking north on U.S. 49 toward the residential area. When deputies learned Tarver had been to Phillips' home, they focused their investigation on him.
Davis testified that when Phillips identified a black canvas bag that investigators found in Counce's home as belonging to Tarver, deputies obtained a search warrant and arrested Tarver.
In the video confession, Tarver told police he took the bag because it contained items he needed.
"I took my bag because it had my tools," he told Davis and Rolland on the video. "It was part of what I was dressing up as."
When asked what he meant, Tarver replied, "As a survivor.
"Like in the movies," he said. "When the world ends."
State Desk on 10/05/2016