Jury in Arkansas killing out 9 1/2 hours, to return; suspect told police he was preparing for zombie apocalypse

Richard Jordan Tarver
Richard Jordan Tarver

JONESBORO -- Jurors deliberated for more than 9 1/2 hours Thursday in the capital murder trial of a man accused of killing a 90-year-old woman but didn't emerge with a verdict as the evening wore on.

ADVERTISEMENT

More headlines

Craighead County Circuit Judge Cindy Thyer told the jury of six men and six women to return to court today at 8:15 a.m. to continue their deliberations.

Richard Jordan Tarver, 31, of Bay is charged in the July 3, 2015, slaying of Lavinda Counce, also of Bay.

Prosecutors say Tarver entered Counce's home, forced her into the trunk of her car and then drove her to a cornfield east of the Craighead County town where he shot her.

After the slaying, police say he drove her car to the NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital on U.S. 49 in Jonesboro and left it in the hospital parking lot, then walked to a friend's house behind the hospital and asked for a ride back to his Bay home.

Tarver's wife, Samantha Tarver, testified Wednesday that her husband stayed with her all day that July 3, other than to go to a nearby Wal-Mart to buy cat food.

Prosecutors contend that Tarver fatally shot Counce because he wanted to see what see what it was like to kill someone.

Tarver confessed to the shooting when arrested July 17, 2015, and prosecutors played a 59-minute video of his confession during the trial. In it, Tarver said he had watched multiple episodes of the television program The Walking Dead the evening before the killing, and wanted to prepare for a zombie apocalypse by learning what it felt like to shoot someone.

Randel Miller, a Jonesboro attorney defending Tarver, said Tarver concocted the confession because investigators threatened to arrest his wife and take away his children if he didn't admit to killing Counce.

The jury began deliberations at 1 p.m. Thursday in Jonesboro, and at 3:25 p.m. they asked bailiffs if they could watch the confession video again. At 5:30 p.m., deputies took several boxes of pizza to the jurors.

At 9:30 p.m., Thyer asked jury members if they wanted to go home for the evening, but jurors opted to stay for another hour before she released them for the evening.

As jurors deliberated, attorneys milled around the courthouse. Tarver sat with his parents on a courtroom bench and joked with them.

Tarver is also charged with kidnapping, residential burglary, abusing a corpse and possession of a defaced firearm.

In his closing statement Thursday morning, Miller said Tarver was concerned about his wife when authorities entered his home on the evening of July 17, 2015, and arrested him. Samantha Tarver has several medical conditions, including dangerously low blood pressure, and her husband feared the stress of the arrest would harm her, Miller said.

"'Please don't hurt my wife,'" Miller quoted Tarver as pleading with police that night. "'Please don't hurt my wife.'

"It's important to understand his frame of mind," Miller said.

Miller contended that Craighead County investigator Justin Rolland threatened Tarver that he would arrest his wife and turn his two daughters over to the state Department of Human Services. Miller told jurors that Rolland placed Tarver in a sheriff's vehicle and told him details of Counce's slaying.

In the video confession, Tarver outlined specific items of the case.

In his closing, Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington said there was no way Tarver would know so many details if he had not killed Counce.

"You didn't see a false confession," Ellington told jurors. "You saw the most credible witness the state has.

"What we all know about the death of Mrs. Counce comes from that video," he said.

Ellington is seeking the death penalty. If the jury returns with a guilty verdict, it will then decide if Tarver should be executed or given a life sentence without parole.

Metro on 10/07/2016

Upcoming Events