Two men were indicted this week by a federal grand jury in Little Rock in connection with the death of a Malvern woman who disappeared more than two years ago, before she could testify against one of them in a federal drug case.
The indictment charges Donald Bill Smith, 35, of Malvern and Samuel "Big Hit" Sherman, 36, of Batesville with conspiring to cause witness-tampering resulting in death. Each man also was charged separately with other crimes.
Smith has been jailed since his arrest in July 2018 on a still-pending capital-murder charge out of Hot Spring County in the September 2016 death of Suzen Cooper, 44, of Malvern, who was also known as Susan Cooper. Her body was found last summer in a Hot Spring County pasture.
Sherman, from whom Cooper had purchased methamphetamine in the fall of 2015 while serving as a confidential informant for law enforcement, is serving a 7½-year sentence imposed on Oct. 24 by U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson. Sherman had pleaded guilty on July 24, 2018, to a federal methamphetamine distribution charge in return for several other similar charges being dropped.
According to the indictment, in 2016, Sherman faced the methamphetamine charges as a result of Cooper's cooperation with law enforcement, and faced a possible revocation of his pretrial release, when he and Smith "made plans to eliminate Susan Cooper as a witness against Samuel Sherman and others."
The indictment says the plans were made Sept. 25, 2016, and that the next day Smith carried out the plan by shooting Cooper with a .22-caliber firearm.
The relationship between the two men wasn't explained in the indictment, but it alleges that Sherman called Smith from Batesville on Sept. 24, 2016, and the next day Smith drove from Malvern to Batesville and then back to Malvern.
On Sept. 26, 2016, it says, an unidentified person referred to only as "Individual 1" picked up Cooper at Smith's request and drove her to a residence on Grigsby Ford Road in Malvern. It says Smith killed Cooper that day and buried her in a field behind the residence.
According to news reports, Cooper's former sister-in-law, 34-year-old Rachael Cooper, pleaded guilty in August 2017 in Hot Spring County Circuit Court to a felony charge of hindering apprehension in return for prosecutors dropping a first-degree murder charge against her. She is serving a 25-year sentence in the Arkansas Department of Correction.
The reports said Rachael Cooper had arranged for Suzen Cooper to meet with Smith to exchange hydrocodone pills for methamphetamine, and then picked her up under the guise of furthering the exchange. The reports said authorities theorized that Suzen Cooper was murdered by Smith in the truck that Rachael Cooper was driving, and that Rachael Cooper then drove the truck to Smith's home, where it was cleaned and evidence was disposed of.
Hot Spring County Prosecuting Attorney Teresa Howell said Friday that she had been informed about the indictment and, "We are evaluating our case, based on the indictment."
She didn't say whether the capital murder charge will still be pursued alongside the federal charges.
In addition to the federal conspiracy charge that both men face, the indictment charges Smith with killing Cooper to prevent her from testifying against Sherman. It also accuses Smith and Sherman of conspiring between January 2007 and November 2016 to possess with the intent to distribute, and distributing, methamphetamine and cocaine, and brandishing a firearm -- a .22-caliber gun -- in relation to a drug-trafficking crime that led to murder.
Metro on 09/07/2019