A 45-year-old Maumelle man who inflicted brain-damaging injury on his 73-year-old stepfather was sentenced to six years in prison Thursday.
The injuries inflicted by Kevin Thomas Garrett turned the victim from a respected retired college professor into a man who couldn't use the bathroom or a phone unassisted, according to testimony.
Michael Edward Soulsby, an award-winning academic at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, required constant medical care after the April 4, 2015, beating by Garrett. Soulsby died three months later on July 8, 2015, according to testimony.
Court records show his cause of death was attributed to congestive heart failure and high blood pressure with blunt force head trauma as a "significant contributing condition."
According to medical testimony, the trauma inflicted on Soulsby caused bleeding in his brain that impaired his ability to think and destroyed his ability to walk, which had already been significantly impaired from a 2009 broken ankle and complications of diabetes.
Prosecutors said the autopsy showed Soulsby had been hit hard once or twice, then fell backward onto the floor, which also contributed to his injuries.
A 1997 story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette profiled Soulsby's work with another researcher, funded by the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium, trying to develop "biologically inspired autonomous mobile robots" they hoped would someday be used in space exploration for their ability to communicate, adapt to hostile or changing environments and work together like a colony of insects.
Garrett did not speak or call any witnesses at his sentencing hearing for second-degree domestic battering, reduced from first-degree domestic battering, and misdemeanor criminal possession of prohibited weapons: brass knuckles.
He pleaded guilty to the charges in August in exchange for prosecutors leaving his punishment up to Circuit Judge Herb Wright.
"He went from an educator to being unable to care for himself," deputy prosecutor Erin Driver told the judge.
Driver asked for the maximum sentence, 10 years in prison, because Garrett, who lived with Soulsby and his wife, Garrett's mother, for years at the family home at 14 Ninth Fairway Loop knew that his stepfather was frail due to poor health. She also asked the judge to consider that Soulsby had also supported Garrett for many years and let him live at the home.
Defense attorney Brandy Turner told the judge that Garrett had only hit his stepfather once and that while police found the brass knuckles at the home, Garrett had not used them on Soulsby.
She also asked the judge to consider that Garrett has never been in serious trouble with the law before other than a drunken driving conviction 13 years ago.
She asked for six years probation with a four-month jail sentence, telling the judge that Garrett spent six months in jail before bonding out.
Garrett had originally claimed self-defense in the case, and Turner asked pointed questions about the victim's drinking habits while questioning a prosecution witness, although she did not elaborate on that point in her closing argument.
According to a police report, Maumelle officers were called to the Soulsby home and found the victim and his son, Sean Soulsby, in the garage. The older man was struggling to stand and speak coherently, with a large red contusion on his forehead and jawline, and blood in one ear, the report said.
Sean Soulsby told police that Garrett was responsible.
Inside the home, Ruth Soulsby also said her son had hurt her husband and gave police the brass knuckles. She said she did not know whether her son had used them on her husband, the report said.
She told officers that her son was upstairs, and when Garrett refused to come down, police went up and got him.
Officers reported seeing two large holes in a wall in the home that were caused by Garrett kicking it. They also found broken glass that was determined to have come from Garrett punching and breaking a glass cabinet.
Officers found Garrett in a bathroom with scratches on his head and blood on his hands, the report said. Garrett smelled of alcohol and acknowledged he'd been drinking beer, but did not give a complete account of what happened beyond saying his mother had struck him during an argument that led to the altercation with the victim.
Garrett wouldn't say how Michael Soulsby got hurt, the report said. Officers declined to question him further out of concern that he was intoxicated, according to the report.
Ruth Soulsby told police that she and her son were arguing over his "lifestyle," and that Garrett had become "verbally combative" and yelled in her husband's face.
She told police that she hit her son to stop his aggression toward her husband. The report states that Ruth Soulsby told police that Garrett began striking the victim in the head and continued to hit him when the older man fell to the floor. She also said her husband had Alzheimer's disease, the report said.
Sean Soulsby, 45, of Maumelle told police that he'd arrived at the home to find his father on the floor and Garrett "being irate in the house." According to the report, he said he tried to subdue Garrett but let him go, after which Garrett went upstairs, breaking things in the home as he went, the report states.
Ruth Soulsby, 74, did not testify, sat with her son before the hearing, and kept away from her husband's family.
The couple had been married for more than 30 years, according to testimony.
Michael Soulsby's three sons are now suing Ruth Soulsby and Garrett for wrongful death and to prevent Ruth Soulsby from claiming her husband's retirement benefits, valued at $413,703.
The victim's oldest son, Michael Soulsby Jr., testified that she had made "hurtful and disrespectful comments."
Ruth Soulsby and Garrett have denied wrongdoing in response to the litigation.
In the wrongful death lawsuit, the sons contend that Garrett had used the brass knuckles on his father and that Ruth Soulsby delayed calling for help.
Instead of calling police or an ambulance, she called the victim's youngest son, Sean Soulsby, who said he had to fight off Garrett when he arrived. He also repeatedly asked Ruth Soulsby to call police, but she refused, according to the lawsuit.
The suit says Sean Soulsby tried to protect himself and his father from Garrett for an hour before Ruth Soulsby called anyone else. When she did make a phone call, it was to her ex-husband, Thomas Garrett, who then called police.
Officers arrived almost two hours after Garrett had attacked the victim, records show.
Metro on 09/10/2016