BENTON — Two suspects in the separate deaths of two men found buried in the backyard of a Traskwood home in October will make their first appearance Monday in Saline County Circuit Court.
Marissa Wright, 50, and Jay Beeson, 53, are charged with capital murder and kidnapping in the killing of Randal Anderson, 53. The two are scheduled to be tried together, but that could change if their attorneys file motions to separate their cases.
Wright also faces a capital-murder charge in the death of Joe Lee Richards Jr., the son of Benton Alderman Joe Lee Richards Sr.
The bodies were buried in the backyard of Wright’s Traskwood home, but police believe the killings were unrelated, according to court documents.
Beeson is not charged in Richards’ death.
A third suspect, Myra Terry, 53, is charged with hindering apprehension, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse in the killing of Richards. Terry is not scheduled to appear in court Monday.
Neither Beeson nor Wright can plead guilty during Monday’s scheduled arraignment because the prosecuting attorney’s office is considering seeking the death penalty, said Rebecca Bush, Saline County chief deputy prosecuting attorney.
Wright likely also will be arraigned Monday in the capital-murder case involving Richards, Bush said.
Benton police responded to an anonymous tip in the October 2010 disappearance of Richards and, after some follow-up witness interviews, obtained a search warrant for Wright’s house on Oct. 3. They did not find Richards’ body at that time.
The search made Wright nervous, according to court documents, and she went to the hospital where her father was being treated for pneumonia. According to the affidavit of probable cause, Wright told her father that she had messed up and killed Richards.
Wright’s father called his pastor, who called a state trooper, the affidavit says. The trooper and Benton police investigators went to Wright’s home a short time later and found her attempting suicide, the affidavit says.
Wright was taken to the hospital but told police she had left a note telling where to find the bodies, the affidavit says.
She was arrested and charged upon her release from the hospital.
Police recovered the bodies Oct. 5, and the investigation was split with Benton police maintaining the lead role in Richards’ death and the Saline County sheriff’s office taking over in Anderson’s death.
Wright requested a jail interview with police, according to affidavits, where she confessed her role in both killings and mentioned a journal where she had written the details of the crimes. Passages from the journal were not included in the affidavits.
Wright told police that she had hit Anderson with an ax or ax handle before he died, according to the affidavits.She told police that she believed Anderson had stolen things from her house, according to the affidavit for an arrest warrant for Beeson.
After Wright confronted Anderson, he ran into the field behind her house, and she called Beeson to help catch him and continue the interrogation, according to the affidavit.
Wright told police that Beeson took a handgun into the field to catch Anderson. He caught him, took him back to the house, hogtied him and wrapped him in plastic sheeting, the affidavit says.
Anderson, who investigators believe was killed in 2008, suffocated slowly, according to the affidavit.
In Richards’ death, witnesses told police that he went into Wright’s house the night of his disappearance when several people were making methamphetamine in her bathroom. Witnesses told police that Richards jumped on the back of a man in her bathroom with whom he had argued previously, an affidavit says
Wright told police that she shot him to get Richards off the man, the affidavit says. Witnesses said he was still alive when they left.
Wright told police that she drove Richards’ truck with all of his belongings in it to his father’s house, the affidavit says. Richards’ father found the truck and reported his son missing the next day.
Both Wright and Beeson have previous arrests involving homicides.
According to police records, Wright- formerly Marissa Bragg Sharp - was arrested in a killing 22 years ago.
She was granted immunity in 1993 in exchange for her testimony against Frank Pilcher in the April 3, 1989, shooting death of Jeff Rhodes in Benton. Pilcher was sentenced to life in prison.
Beeson was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1991 shooting death of Randy Jack Allen, the ex-husband of Beeson’s sister. Beeson was sentenced to 20 years in prison but was paroled after serving about three years.
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 11/13/2011