HOT SPRINGS -- The last of three people charged in the 2012 death of a Malvern man at a Hot Springs motel pleaded guilty to felony charges Sept. 10 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Elbert Osborne Jr., 52, of Hot Springs pleaded guilty to robbery and manslaughter, amended from an original charge of first-degree murder, and was sentenced to 12 years on each count, to run concurrently. With four previous felony convictions, Osborne also admitted to his status as a habitual offender.
Osborne was accused, along with David Lee Felty, 46, and Felty's wife, Felicia Lattice Murray, 29, of causing the death of James Richard Cranford, 57, who authorities said was beaten with a baseball bat during a 2012 robbery while he stayed at the El Rancho Motel at 1611 Central Ave. He later died from a heart attack caused by the attack, officials said.
Felty, who prosecutors said was the one who actually beat Cranford, was convicted of first-degree murder on April 14, 2015, after a two-day trial and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Murray was to stand trial Aug. 12, 2015, but in a last-minute deal pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
At Felty's trial, deputy prosecutor Joe Graham said that Cranford had won "quite a bit of money" at Oaklawn Park earlier on Aug. 21, 2012, and rented a room at the El Rancho Motel in order to party with a prostitute friend who recruited another prostitute to join them.
Graham said Cranford gave money to one of the women to buy crack cocaine for herself to use while he began shooting up with methamphetamine. At some point, Murray, Osborne and Felty, who was armed with a baseball bat, forced their way into Cranford's room to rob him, and Felty attacked him with the bat and stomped on his face, prosecutors said.
Graham said Cranford's death was ruled a homicide because the beating had caused him to have a heart attack, but he noted there was evidence the victim had a high level of methamphetamine in his system.
State Desk on 09/18/2016