No bail for teen slaying suspect; charges too serious in Conway couple’s killings, judge says

In this jail photo provided by Conway Ark., Police Department, suspect Hunter Drexler stands by a door Friday, Aug. 7, 2015, in Conway.
In this jail photo provided by Conway Ark., Police Department, suspect Hunter Drexler stands by a door Friday, Aug. 7, 2015, in Conway.

CONWAY -- A judge refused to set bail Tuesday for Hunter Drexler, the oldest of four teenagers charged with murdering a Conway couple in 2015.

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Ruling in Faulkner County Circuit Court, Judge Troy Braswell cited the severity of the charges against Drexler -- capital murder, aggravated robbery, theft of property and abuse of a corpse -- and said the potential sentence was life in prison.

Braswell also cited recent testimony that Drexler had removed his electronic monitor when he and two other teenagers fled to Texas shortly after the July 21, 2015, killings. Drexler, then 17 and now 19, was wearing the monitor because of one or more juvenile offenses.

Drexler, of Clinton, has been jailed since police in Texas arrested him and sent him back to Arkansas.

He is charged in the shooting deaths of Robert and Patricia Cogdell, both 66. Like the other defendants, he was charged as an adult. Drexler cannot face the death penalty because he was not 18 at the time of the crime.

Drexler sat silently between his attorneys during his bail hearing Tuesday. Members of his family sat behind him.

Braswell noted that his decision also incorporated findings he made in a Feb. 8 ruling that denied Drexler's request to move his case to juvenile court. Drexler would likely face a lighter sentence if convicted as a juvenile.

Defense attorney Patrick Benca told Braswell on Tuesday that he expects to file a notice soon of his intent to appeal the juvenile-transfer decision to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Hugh Finkelstein said such appeals tend to take about six months. Benca said he plans to ask that it be expedited, but he said he doesn't know whether the Supreme Court will grant that request.

Braswell set July 25 as the next pretrial hearing for Drexler.

In court Tuesday, Benca responded to statements in Finkelstein's written argument against bail.

Finkelstein had argued that Drexler's maternal grandfather, John Ison, had the financial means and the attitude to help Drexler flee the state or the country if the teenager is released on bail.

Finkelstein cited a Facebook message in which Ison told his grandson that he could make the guns that Drexler is suspected of stealing from his father's home "disappear" and said Drexler was aware that Ison kept more than $750,000 in cash at home.

Ison has attended most, if not all, of his grandson's court proceedings in the murder case and was present Tuesday as well.

Benca countered Tuesday that Ison was not aware of the killings when he exchanged that message with his grandson who was fleeing to Texas. After court, Benca said Ison thought his grandson was worried about getting in trouble for taking the guns.

"Mr. Ison had no idea what was going on," Benca said in court. Rather, Benca said, the grandfather cooperated with authorities and checked with police stations between Arkansas and Texas while the youths were on the run.

Two of the teenagers -- Justin Staton, 16, and Connor Atchley, 18 -- have pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other charges and are in prison. The fourth defendant, Anastasia Roberts, 18, is in jail and awaits trial.

The Cogdells were Staton's legal guardians.

State Desk on 03/08/2017

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