Conway police arrest man in drive-by death

CONWAY -- A man already jailed on accusations that he beat a woman at a motel was being held without bail Thursday in the Sept. 9 shooting death of a Conway man who was helping his daughter deal with a flat tire, police said.

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Police said they have arrested Sammie Thomas Jr., 38, of Conway in the death of Robert Lee Givens, 66, who was shot as he drove along Donaghey Avenue near Independence Street, an older part of Conway.

Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said he expects his office to file a capital murder charge today.

Officers arrested Thomas on Wednesday in the unrelated beating on charges of first-degree false imprisonment and third-degree domestic battering, Conway police spokesman LaTresha Woodruff said.

Police said Givens' daughter told them last week that her father had taken her to a Wal-Mart store to get something to fix a flat tire. After they left the store, a tan sport utility vehicle drove up behind them and flashed its lights, prompting her father to pull over, she told police.

The daughter reportedly said she heard the SUV driver say he thought her father was someone else. The two men exchanged words and her dad drove away, she said. A short time later the SUV driver pulled up beside them and shot her father, she told police.

A police affidavit related to Thomas' arrest in the beating case said that victim was staying in a Holiday Inn Express motel room, which a friend had rented so she could hide from Thomas after she left a hospital where she was treated for injuries suffered in a previous encounter with Thomas.

Police responding to a caller who reported hearing a man striking a crying woman found the woman with a swollen left cheek and left ear. Thomas had found her at the motel, "was very angry and advised [her] she was going to die today for talking to the police," the affidavit said.

State Desk on 09/16/2016

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