A Fayetteville man charged with first-degree murder in a fatal stabbing more than three years ago was acquitted by reason of insanity Tuesday by a Washington County Circuit judge.
Jeremy Steven Borders, 43, was accused of killing Joe Bob Scarborough, 48, on Nov. 6, 2016. Scarborough was found stabbed to death near the intersection of Old Farmington Road and South Green Point Trace in Fayetteville.
A preliminary arrest report said Scarborough suffered more than 10 stab wounds, many to his torso and face.
Police found Borders, who lived nearby, sitting on a curb wearing shorts and no shirt. He had bloody hands and blood on his chest, shorts and legs.
Borders told police, "I didn't mean to kill him; I didn't want him to kill me," according to the report. Police also found a knife.
Borders suffers from schizophrenia and has a history of alcohol use disorder, according to a doctor who examined him at the Arkansas State Hospital.
Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay entered an order Tuesday acquitting Borders and committing him to the custody of Arkansas State Hospital for further treatment, according to Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett.
Doctors at the state hospital found Borders unfit to proceed in September 2017 because he lacked the rational understanding of the criminal proceedings against him and lacked the capacity to rationally assist and communicate with his attorney.
Borders has remained at the facility since then in an effort to restore his fitness to proceed.
Neighbors said Scarborough was a well-liked and generous maintenance man for several duplexes along South Green Point Trace, which is just west of Interstate 49.
Several residents said Borders was threatening them from the edge of his property earlier that day. He was shouting at everyone, including children, saying if anyone stepped on his property, he'd kill them, they said.