Michelle Bradford
Stories by Michelle
'Can hear you now,' jail phone users told
posted: 09/29/2008 5:27 a.m.
FAYETTEVILLE - Interrogation room confessions aren't the only way a crime suspect's words can come back to haunt him at trial.
Evangelist raised towns' doubts
posted: 09/22/2008 5:34 a.m.
MULBERRY - People had harsh words for Tony Alamo on Sunday in Crawford County where the evangelist who is now targeted in a federal child pornography probe once had a tightly controlled ministry compound.
Case on Hells Angels hitting speed bumps
posted: 09/22/2008 5:23 a.m.
EUREKA SPRINGS - The case against six Hells Angels members charged with beating and stabbing rival bikers last year is taking some hard hits.
Plea in '05 killings earns man 32 years
posted: 09/06/2008 2:36 a.m.
A Newton County man was sentenced Friday to 32 years in prison on reduced charges of manslaughter for killing two men and burning their bodies in 2005.
Thieves hit Alltel warehouse, take truckloads of phones
posted: 09/03/2008 6:35 a.m.
FORT SMITH - Thieves cut a hole in the roof of an Alltel Corp. warehouse over the weekend and loaded up to four semitrailers with pricey cell phones, police reported.
Spike in child porn raising alarm
posted: 08/31/2008 6:01 a.m.
FAYETTEVILLE - Child pornography is more pervasive and serious than people probably think in Northwest Arkansas, prosecutors said.
Man, 56, convicted in child-porn case
posted: 08/28/2008 6:24 a.m.
FAYETTEVILLE - A judge found a Springdale man guilty in what the FBI has called the agency's biggest child pornography bust in Arkansas.
Wal-Mart, Coughlin hit $6.7 million deal
posted: 08/22/2008 4:20 a.m.
BENTONVILLE - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will pay former Vice Chairman Tom Coughlin $6.75 million to end a three-year legal battle over a $17 million retirement package, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows.
Radio program helps Mexicans navigate procedures to obtain ID
posted: 08/18/2008 5:16 a.m.
An open-mike radio show is helping Mexican nationals in Northwest Arkansas navigate the system of getting identification to make life easier in the United States and on return trips home to Mexico.
UA law school to launch clinic on immigration
posted: 08/12/2008 5:24 a.m.
FAYETTEVILLE - The University of Arkansas School of Law is starting a legal clinic to train students in immigration law, an area of expertise that is in demand.
Former UA QB pleads innocent
updated: 08/13/2008 5:57 a.m.
FAYETTEVILLE - Former Arkansas quarterback Matt Jones pleaded innocent to a felony drug charge in Fayetteville on Monday, then caught a flight to Florida to continue preparing for the NFL season.
Child porn gets ex-police officer 188 months
posted: 08/02/2008 5:51 a.m.
FAYETTEVILLE - A judge Wednesday sentenced a former police officer to more than 15 years in prison for distributing child pornography.
Judge leans against Wal-Mart staff on panel
posted: 07/26/2008 4:29 a.m.
BENTONVILLE - A judge said Friday that he's not inclined to let employees of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. serve as jurors in a case over whether former Wal-Mart executive Tom Coughlin can collect retirement benefits.
County seeks taxes to fund replacing jail
posted: 07/21/2008 2:12 a.m.
Newton County officials are pursuing a sales-tax proposal to build a new jail to replace the century-old building that's been slapped with a warning by state inspectors.
Deal frees woman held in man's Lowell slaying
posted: 07/16/2008 5:25 a.m.
BENTONVILLE - Prosecutors on Tuesday dropped charges against the woman who was in the car during a 2006 shooting of a man in Lowell.
Murderer, cohort get life in plea bargain
posted: 07/12/2008 3:57 a.m.
BENTONVILLE - The man who shot and killed a father of four at a Lowell intersection in 2006 and his accomplice will spend the rest of their lives in prison after accepting a plea deal Friday.
Trial in Lowell killing starts; 2 jurors seated
posted: 07/09/2008 3:59 a.m.
BENTONVILLE - Two jurors were seated Tuesday during the first day of a capital murder trial in a 2006 shooting of a motorist in Lowell.
2 to blame each other for slaying
posted: 07/06/2008 2:29 a.m.
Manuel Camacho and Serafin Sandoval-Vega plan to blame each other when their capital-murder trial starts Tuesday in Benton County Circuit Court.
LPGA tour hoping to link girls and golf
posted: 07/05/2008 2:56 a.m.
By tee time Friday, Hannah Parker had 20 autographs from players at the Ladies Professional Golf Association P&G Beauty Northwest Arkansas Championship.
Springdale slaying's 2nd arrest is at border
posted: 07/03/2008 5:32 a.m.
The second of two men charged in the death of a Springdale real estate agent in a bar fight last year has been caught at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Hispanics lose 1 way to get area newscasts
posted: 06/23/2008 4:51 a.m.
Hispanics in Northwest Arkansas lost a local news source when Univision Spanish-language television ended news programming earlier this month.
Judge rules to allow gang-related claims
posted: 06/07/2008 5:12 a.m.
BENTONVILLE - A judge ruled Friday that jurors will be allowed to hear evidence at a capital-murder trial next month that alleges the 2006 slaying of a motorist in Lowell was a gang initiation.
Convicted exec adds claim to suit against Wal-Mart
posted: 06/07/2008 5:09 a.m.
Former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executive Tom Coughlin amended his lawsuit against his former employer Thursday, claiming the company's top legal counsel led a "witch hunt" that got him convicted for embezzlement.
2 teachers arrested on alcohol charges
posted: 06/06/2008 4:47 a.m.
Two Springdale schoolteachers have been arrested on alcohol charges in unrelated incidents at school in recent weeks, police reports show.
Family wants lake searched for missing Rogers woman
posted: 06/01/2008 3:37 a.m.
Searchers and her family suspect Alicia Minton's body is in Beaver Lake.
Appeal planned after 4 ousted at police academy
posted: 05/22/2008 4:47 a.m.
Bella Vista's police chief said he plans to appeal on behalf of one of his officers who was accused of cheating and expelled from the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy last week.
Horse therapy benefits autistic kids
posted: 05/18/2008 4:59 a.m.
SILOAM SPRINGS - Horse therapy for disabled children has been around for years, but a program in Benton County is trying a new slant to help children with autism learn social skills.
Report: Killer's abuse claims false
posted: 05/11/2008 4:45 a.m.
BENTONVILLE - Jonesboro school gunman Mitchell Scott Johnson wasn't abused in the Benton County jail as he told a judge in court last week, instead, a sheriff's office investigation shows, Johnson tried to make marks on his body to bolster his story.
12 illegals 'packed' in vehicle, police say
posted: 05/08/2008 3:34 a.m.
A 19-year-old van driver was stopped along Interstate 540 by a Benton County sheriff's deputy and was found with 12 illegal aliens in the back of the vehicle, police said Wednesday.
Murder trial opens with plea for mercy
posted: 04/22/2008 4:06 a.m.
Washington County public defenders asked jurors in Gregory Decay's capital murder trial Monday not to "automatically give him the death penalty" before opening statements even got under way.
Defense lawyers put hurricane to use
posted: 04/21/2008 4:08 a.m.
The capital murder trial of Gregory Christopher Decay, charged in the slayings of Kevin Barkley Jones and Kendall Rachell Rice, both 24, is set to begin today in Washington County.
Marine dies in Afghan bomb blast
posted: 04/19/2008 3:03 a.m.
Kyle Wilks of Rogers had to stay behind when the rest of his Marine Corps unit was shipped out to Iraq in 2005.
Complaints cleared for task force officer
posted: 04/13/2008 3:59 a.m.
An undercover officer assigned to Northwest Arkansas' task force investigating illegal aliens is being unfairly targeted by bogus complaints, Springdale's police chief said last week.
Lowell death linked to gang, court told
posted: 04/05/2008 2:57 a.m.
The slaying of a motorist in Lowell initially looked like a case of road rage, but a prosecution expert testified Friday in Benton County Circuit Court that the shooting was a gang initiation.
Town clears ditches as rain gives break before returning
posted: 04/02/2008 1:54 a.m.
JOHNSON - With more rain in the forecast this week, all Claudia Adamson could do Tuesday was hope water-removal crews would continue uninterrupted at her property.
Attorney accepts ex-exec's sentence
posted: 03/29/2008 3:24 a.m.
A federal prosecutor said Friday that he won't appeal the resentencing of former Wal-Mart Vice Chairman Tom Coughlin because the U.S. Supreme Court has given federal judges more leeway in sentencing criminals.
'Pot' not mine, mayor contends
posted: 03/26/2008 1:49 a.m.
Berryville's longtime mayor said Monday that a small amount of marijuana police found in his pickup during a traffic stop over the weekend wasn't his.
Police want to share information on gangs
posted: 03/23/2008 4:25 a.m.
When Rogers or Springdale police try to solve a gang crime, they have database access to information on hundreds of local gang members or their associates.
Coughlin had OK to go to party, officer says
posted: 03/15/2008 4:33 a.m.
Former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. vice chairman Tom Coughlin was excused from house arrest to hobnob at a hunter's banquet last Saturday night because the event related to community service he's doing as part of his federal sentence, a probation official said Friday.
Coughlin at banquet despite house arrest
posted: 03/14/2008 3:33 a.m.
Wearing an ankle monitor and mingling deep in a crowd of other avid hunters, former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. vice chairman Tom Coughlin was at a fundraising banquet Saturday night in Benton County where alcohol flowed and guns were auctioned.
Murder suspect claims blackout
posted: 03/11/2008 3:42 a.m.
The man police say killed a University of Arkansas co-ed over the weekend said he'd done something bad to Katharine "Katie" Wood, but blacked out and doesn't remember exactly what.
Crossbow killer faces 'pot' case
posted: 03/06/2008 2:14 a.m.
Bentonville police arrested crossbow killer Justin Wade Trammell on Monday in a marijuana possession case stemming from last month's arrest of Jonesboro school gunman Mitchell Scott Johnson.
Man gets life in girl's rape, death
posted: 03/04/2008 3:21 a.m.
Abon Tili received two consecutive life sentences without parole Monday for the capital murder and rape of a 10-year-old Springdale girl in 2006.
Delay sought in alien case
posted: 02/29/2008 3:03 a.m.
Attorneys for two Acambaro restaurant operators accused of harboring illegal aliens and money laundering are seeking a trial delay in order to analyze and translate evidence and find witnesses who've been deported to Mexico.
Man faces prison, fine on illegal alien charges
posted: 02/26/2008 2:57 a.m.
A kitchen manager arrested in the December immigration raid at an Acambaro Mexican Restaurant pleaded guilty Monday to being an illegal alien.
Some say translation errors cause for concern
posted: 02/24/2008 4:04 a.m.
Alejandro Segundo pleaded guilty in 2006 to driving while intoxicated in Rogers, signing a form incorrectly translated into Spanish, an interpreter now says.
Inmate held illegally, suit alleges
posted: 02/15/2008 2:23 a.m.
Benton County jailers illegally held an inmate on behalf of Northwest Arkansas' Immigration Criminal Apprehension Task Force for 3/2 days, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court.
Iced bridges lead to 2 deaths
posted: 02/07/2008 2:49 a.m.
Two drivers died in crashes on icy bridges Wednesday morning in Northwest Arkansas, one plunging into a steep ravine, the other struck by traffic after ricocheting off a guardrail.
School gunman arrested on debit-card theft count
posted: 02/06/2008 3:43 a.m.
Bentonville police arrested Jonesboro school gunman Mitchell Scott Johnson on a new charge Tuesday: using a debit card that was left at a convenience store where he was a clerk.
Johnson jailed on marijuana charge
posted: 02/05/2008 6 a.m.
Jonesboro-Westside school gunman Mitchell Scott Johnson was in jail Monday on a marijuana charge less than a week after a jury in Fayetteville convicted him on federal gun and drug charges.
