FORT SMITH -- A former handyman at the Fort Smith Museum of History pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing a tiny gold pin in the shape of a lizard that belonged to American Old West federal Judge Isaac C. Parker and was part of a museum display.
Mark Craig Stevens, 58, entered the plea before Sebastian County Circuit Judge Stephen Tabor. Stevens was sentenced to six years of probation, fined $2,500, and was ordered to pay costs and fees totaling $281, and to repay the $68.50 that he received for selling the pin that was valued at between $1,900 and $2,500.
Stevens also was banned from the museum.
Police records say Stevens was working at the museum March 7 when he pried open a display case that held the 1½-by-1¼-inch gold and diamond pin, which was one of the few personal possessions of the famous "hanging judge" in the museum's collection.
Stevens took the pin and sold it for $68.50 at DBKJ Numismatics, which is a few blocks from the museum. Stevens also had done odd jobs for DBKJ Numismatics.
The theft went undetected for three weeks until the museum's executive director, Leisa Gramlich, noticed that the display case that held the pin was moved away from the wall. She checked and discovered that the pin was gone and that someone had pried loose a metal plate at the rear of the case. The lock securing the cabinet door was attached to the metal plate.
After reports of the theft were publicized, police received a call from Tamara Masters of DBKJ Numismatics. Masters told police that she had the pin at the store, had bought it from Stevens and had dealt with him previously, according to police records.
Masters told police that she did not know the pin was stolen until she saw a social media post about the theft and recognized the pin, the records said.
The pin was a gift to Parker from his wife, Mary, according to the museum. Before she was married, a boyfriend of then-Mary O'Toole gave her a gold nugget that she had made into earrings. After she married Parker, she lost one of the earrings and had the other made into the lizard pin that she presented to her husband.
Parker, a native of Ohio, presided over the federal court in Fort Smith from 1875 to 1896.
During his tenure, he condemned 160 men and four women to hang, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. Of that number, 79 were executed.
State Desk on 08/23/2018