LITTLE ROCK — Capital-murder defendant Gary Dunn, who is accused of killing Arkansas Tech University student Nona Dirksmeyer, will go to trial for a third time Aug. 1.
Fifth Judicial Circuit Judge Bill Pearson set the date this week. Pearson’s schedule indicates that he and attorneys expect the trial to run three weeks, just like the previous two.
Twice now juries have deadlocked after hearing the case. Both times the split was 8-4 in favor of acquittal.
Jurors from the most recent trial, which took place in January, said they were skeptical that prosecutors will ever get a conviction.
They said they based their assertions on two things: lingering doubts about Kevin Jones, Dirksmeyer’s boyfriend at the time of her murder, and the lack of physical evidence against Dunn.
Jones was tried and acquitted in the killing in 2007, but Dunn’s attorneys raised doubts about him in their defense of Dunn during Dunn’s previous two trials.
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A standing gag order prevents prosecutors and defense attorneys, as well as others involved in the case, from speaking with the media.
Dirksmeyer, a petite beauty queen and music student, was found dead in her apartment Dec. 15, 2005.
She had been bludgeoned with a floor lamp. The killer also punched her, strangled her and tried to cut her throat before using the lamp as a final deadly weapon.
When found by Jones and his mother, Janice, Dirksmeyer was nude, except for a pair of ankle socks.
A medical examiner testified, however, that he found no indication of sexual assault.
Dirksmeyer, 19 at the time of her death, grew up in Dover, as did Jones. The two were high school sweethearts but were struggling with their relationship in the months before the murder, according to witness testimony.
Dunn, a parolee with a battery conviction, lived with his wife and young stepchildren in the same apartment complex as Dirksmeyer.
Prosecutors have alleged that Dunn could watch Dirksmeyer from his apartment, which was on a terrace above the college student’s apartment. They contended during the trials that after somehow gaining entry to Dirksmeyer’s apartment, Dunn killed her during a rape attempt.
Defense attorneys scoffed at the theory, saying that given the brutality of the sustained attack, there should have been physical evidence against Dunn found at the scene.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/11/2011