Convicted murderer Scotty Ray Gardner has been sentenced to death by lethal injection for the 2016 strangulation of his girlfriend.
The jury deliberated for about an hour before the Wednesday sentencing.
Gardner, 57, was on trial for the March 6, 2016, slaying of Susan Heather Stubbs, 41.
He was convicted Tuesday of capital murder. Capital murder is punishable under Arkansas law with either death or life in prison without parole.
Stubbs, was found facedown in a room at the Days Inn on Oak Street in Conway on March 6, 2016.
After killing Stubbs, Gardner took her money and phone and drove a truck to Hot Springs so he could gamble, according to a police affidavit accompanying the murder charge and a search warrant affidavit.
He told investigators in 2016 that he and Stubbs had been fighting. He had become angry with Stubbs, grabbed a nearby cord and “wrapped it around her neck,” according to police.
At the time of Stubbs’ death, the couple had lived at the Days Inn since Feb. 21, 2016, police said. Gardner was on parole. He had served time in prison for more than two decades for trying to kill his former wife.
Public court records showed that Stubbs had sought an order of protection from Gardner in January 2016 after she told police the previous month that Gardner “had been verbally and physically abusing her,” according to a police report. Court records showed the petition was dismissed when Stubbs failed to appear in court as scheduled Feb. 9.
According to the Arkansas Department of Correction, Gardner had been a state prisoner for 23 years, from Oct. 31, 1991, until he was released on parole Dec. 4, 2014. Gardner was convicted of first-degree battery, second-degree escape and criminal attempted murder in the first degree.
The attempted murder charge involved Graves’ wife at the time, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Gardner also served time in the Arkansas prison system from Dec. 5, 1986, through Sept. 8, 1989.
