MARION -- A West Memphis man pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the death of a man police say he bludgeoned.
Lester Ray Thomas, 39, entered the plea in Crittenden County Circuit Court on March 1, Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington said.
Thomas was charged in the Aug. 31 slaying of Robert Barrentine, 20, of West Memphis. Police said they responded to a report of a homicide in a home in the 400 block of Balfour Road. When they arrived, they found Barrentine dead in a back bedroom of his home, Ellington said.
The prosecuting attorney said Thomas will serve 30 years in prison and is not eligible for parole because of a prior conviction. Thomas served six years of a 24-year sentence for attempted murder when he was convicted of stabbing a woman in a West Memphis home police say he broke into in 2007. He was released from prison three years ago.
"We consulted with the victim's family and this plea removes this violent individual from our community ... [and] spares the victim's family from years of appeal proceedings that would occur after a jury trial," Ellington said in a news release. "The family agreed that this plea and sentence, without the eligibility of parole, was in their best interests and the interest of justice."
State Desk on 03/08/2017