CONWAY -- A teenager charged with murdering a Conway couple last year has filed a letter asking if she and an imprisoned co-defendant can get married.
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Anastasia Roberts, 18, of Conway raised the matter in a one-page, handwritten letter to the Faulkner County circuit clerk's office, which filed it Tuesday.
"The fiance in question is Connor Atchley. He is in the Varner Unit [Arkansas Department of Correction] #164376," Roberts wrote.
Atchley, from Greenbrier and also 18, is serving a 25-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to two counts each of first-degree murder and theft by receiving in the July 21, 2015, shooting deaths of Robert and Patricia Cogdell, both 66. Roberts is jailed in Conway while she awaits trial on the same charges.
[DOCUMENT: Read Anastasia Roberts' letter]
"It is very important to us we get married soon so that we do not have to wait his entire sentence to be wed," Roberts wrote.
She said she wants them to be able to write each other "while we are incarcerated."
"Me and him have been together for nearly four years, two of which we have been engaged, so this is no [spontaneous] act we will regret later," Roberts wrote.
Told of the letter, Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said, "It would be inappropriate for me to comment."
Roberts' attorney, Jim Wyatt, was in court Wednesday and did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
Roberts and Atchley, who were 17 at the time of the crime, have been incarcerated since shortly after the killings occurred.
Two other teenagers also were charged in the shooting deaths. Justin Staton, now 15, has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other offenses and has been sentenced to prison. Hunter Drexler, now 19, of Clinton is awaiting trial on capital-murder and other charges.
According to a police affidavit filed in court last year, Atchley told officers that a plan to kill the Cogdells for money and credit cards was conceived while he and the other two boys were in a juvenile lockup. Atchley reportedly said he told Roberts about the plan after he was released, the affidavit said.
"Anastasia advised that there was a plan to shoot and kill" the Cogdells. "She and [Connor] planned to run away and were promised a BMW to use on their run," the affidavit said.
Police said Patricia Cogdell was sitting in the BMW when someone shot her through a window.
Correction Department spokesman Solomon Graves did not immediately return email or phone requests for comment.
The department's online Guide for Family and Friends lists several rules on marriages by prisoners.
"Inmates may marry, if the marriage follows state and federal laws and department policies," the guide says.
"The inmate makes a marriage request to the unit chaplain," who schedules an interview with the inmate. A 90-day waiting period follows the interview. "If the warden approves the marriage request, a date is set for the ceremony" at a prison unit.
The guide does not address marriages between inmates at different prisons or at county jails.
"The only time the inmate might leave the unit is to be escorted to the courthouse to sign the marriage license," the guide says. The couple does not get to visit after the ceremony, but up to six approved guests may attend the wedding. The inmate, the inmate's family or another private source must pay for wedding costs, including transportation.
Finally, "The Department of Correction does not allow conjugal visits for inmates," the guide says.
State Desk on 10/20/2016