JONESBORO -- After 13 hours of deliberations that included jurors cursing, making threats toward one another and throwing evidence, the panel of six men and six women on Friday found Richard Jordan Tarver guilty of capital murder in the slaying of a 90-year-old woman.
After rendering the verdict, it took the Craighead County Circuit Court jury less than an hour Friday afternoon to sentence Tarver to life in prison without parole.
Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington had sought the death penalty against Tarver, saying the July 3, 2015, killing of Lavinda Counce was "heinous and depraved" in nature.
Jurors also sentenced Tarver to life in prison for kidnapping and aggravated residential robbery, 10 years in prison for abusing a corpse and two six-year terms in prison for theft of property and possessing a defaced firearm.
Tarver, 31, of Bay stood motionless when Circuit Judge Cindy Thyer read the verdict.
Family and friends of Counce who had attended the trial since it began Sept. 26 gasped at the outcome, held one another and wiped away tears.
"We think it was an appropriate verdict," Ellington said. "We asked for the death penalty, but the jury gave Tarver more mercy than he gave Miss Counce."
Police said Tarver went to Counce's home in Bay, knocked on her door and then pushed his way into the home when she answered July 3, 2015. He forced her into the trunk of her car and drove to a cornfield west of the Craighead County town, made her walk through three rows of corn and shot her in the back of the head with a .38-caliber handgun.
Police said Tarver then drove Counce's car to NEA Baptist Hospital on U.S. 49 in Jonesboro, parked the car in the hospital's lot and walked to the home of a friend where he asked for a ride back to Bay.
Authorities found Counce's body in the cornfield July 12, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Grant DeProw said.
Tarver was arrested July 17 after Tarver's friend, Korrie Phillips, told police Tarver was at his home near the hospital seeking the ride home July 3.
Tarver confessed to investigators that he fatally shot Counce, and prosecutors played the 59-minute confession on the fourth day of Tarver's trial.
In it, Tarver gave explicit details of abducting Counce, shooting her and then leaving her car at the hospital -- details, Ellington said, that Tarver would not have known had he not killed the elderly woman.
While on the stand Thursday, Tarver said he concocted the confession because Craighead County sheriff's investigator Justin Rolland threatened to arrest Tarver's wife and take his two daughters away from him if he did not admit to killing Counce.
The confession was the key piece of evidence for the state's case, Ellington said Friday after the trial. Without it, the prosecutor said, he wondered if he would have gained a conviction.
It also was the most contentious point for jurors, who began deliberating at 1 p.m. Thursday and then went home at 11 p.m. before returning Friday morning to continue deliberations.
At one point Friday, Thyer called jurors back into the courtroom and admonished them to "maintain civility" and "avoid profanity." Thyer also said she would not tolerate jurors making threats against other jurors or "abusing exhibits" while deliberating.
One juror, who asked not to be named, said jurors became "intense" and began cursing and making threats as the evening wore on Thursday. He said some jurors threw photographs around the jury room in frustration.
He said the 12 jurors were locked 10-2 in favor of Tarver's conviction, but he and one other juror felt that Tarver's confession was coerced by Rolland and they were adamant about Tarver's innocence. Jurors asked that the taped confession be played again during deliberations Thursday evening.
Tarver testified that he was placed in a county sheriff's vehicle for five to 10 minutes after he was arrested July 12. Rolland got in the vehicle with Tarver and threatened to arrest his wife if he didn't confess, Tarver said. The investigator said Tarver's 9-year-old daughter and 7-month-old daughter would be taken by the state Department of Human Services, and he then gave Tarver details about the case that Tarver later repeated when making his confession, Tarver testified.
The juror said the fact there were no recording devices in Rolland's vehicle was evidence enough for him to believe the confession was coerced.
"The whole system is corrupt," he said, standing outside the Craighead County Courthouse on Friday afternoon. "This was a bogus-ass trial. Nobody knows what was said in that car. You watch the confession and it looks like a lot of things [Tarver said] in the confession were poked out of him."
The juror admitted, though, to voting in favor of Tarver's conviction Friday morning because "some words in his statement were kind of too specific" and hinted toward Tarver's guilt.
He said jurors were quick to render the sentence of life without parole rather than death by lethal injection because they felt sorry for Tarver's family. Tarver's wife, Samantha Tarver, testified Thursday that she had several medical issues that left her disabled and she had relied on her husband's help each day.
A second juror who did not give his name said the process angered him.
"It got heated at times," he said of deliberations. "That's all I am going to say."
As he walked away, he turned and said, "[Tarver] should be on death row now."
Tarver's attorney, Randel Miller of Jonesboro, hugged Tarver after Thyer read the sentence and then quickly left the courthouse without comment.
Tarver did not comment on the sentence as he was led to a deputy's vehicle to be taken back to jail.
"We needed this guilty verdict," said Patsy Scott, one of Counce's two daughters. "We didn't care if it was a prison sentence or the death penalty.
"This [slaying] changed all of us," she said. "It changed our community. We are all more aware of our surroundings. It took something from everyone."
State Desk on 10/08/2016