FORT SMITH -- Police have arrested a man in the theft of a gold and diamond pin from the Fort Smith Museum of History that once belonged to federal Judge Isaac C. Parker.
Mark Craig Stevens, 58, was arrested Thursday on a warrant charging him with theft by receiving after police received an anonymous tip that he was staying with an acquaintance at a home in north Fort Smith, according to a police news release. He was being held in the Sebastian County jail Friday in lieu of $3,500 bond.
The release said detectives questioned him about the theft of the lizard-shaped pin that was reported stolen from a display case at the museum March 22. It was recovered two days later and returned to the museum, according to police.
Police said Thursday that the warrant had been issued for Stevens. No details about how Stevens may have been involved in the pin's theft have been released by police.
Police spokesman Cpl. Anthony Rice said Stevens worked for the museum as a contractor.
Parker was the federal judge in Fort Smith from 1875 to 1896 and was notorious because 79 men were executed during his judgeship. The pin, a gift from his wife, Mary, is one of the few personal possessions of Parker's in the museum's collection.
Metro on 04/15/2018