CONWAY -- Capital-murder suspect Hunter Drexler faces a misdemeanor charge after a fellow inmate at the Faulkner County jail implicated Drexler in a case involving water damage to the lockup.
Drexler, 20, of Clinton was charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief earlier this month in Faulkner County District Court. His attorney, Patrick Benca, waived an arraignment and entered an innocent plea on Drexler's behalf last week.
According to reports filed by jail officers, one of them watching from the jail tower Oct. 16 noticed that inmate Joshua Mosier had taken a television set from the jail's day room to the pods, areas where several inmates are housed. About two minutes later, the officer said he heard fire alarms.
The jail's water system, sprinklers and fire alarms are connected, so another officer turned off the water that was going into that part of the jail. Because the sprinklers kept releasing water, an officer looked closer and saw that an inmate had damaged the sprinkler head.
When officers reached Mosier, he told them he was going to kill himself, so he was placed on suicide watch, the reports indicate.
Sgt. Rusty Page wrote that he knew that Mosier had known "what was going to happen with the sprinklers" and was later advised that Mosier wanted to talk with him.
"He told me that he was not taking a charge for another inmate," Page wrote. "I asked him to write a statement. He informed me that [inmate Kanyon] Tolliver, 19, had broken the sprinkler but, only after ... Drexler had coerced ... Tolliver into breaking the sprinkler."
Tolliver, already charged with third-degree battering, a misdemeanor, also was charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief earlier this month.
None of the officers' reports include any comment from Drexler, who has been jailed without bail since July 2015 on capital murder and other charges.
Officers moved the water out of the jail through drains into the recreation yard.
Mosier, 25, of Greenbrier was sentenced to two years in the Arkansas Department of Correction in August after reaching a plea agreement on a felony theft charge. Some inmates are housed in jails until space is available in the prison system.
Drexler was among four teenagers charged in the July 2015 shooting deaths of Patricia and Robert Cogdell, both 66, of Conway. Drexler is the only one awaiting trial. The others are in prison.
Drexler seeks to have his case moved to juvenile court instead of circuit court, where he could face up to life in prison without parole if convicted. He was 17 at the time of the crimes.
State Desk on 10/31/2017