The kidnapping trial of Gary Dunn has been moved from Russellville to Ozark, and the jury can hear of his second-degree battery conviction for attacking a female jogger in 2002, said Jeff Phillips, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas' 5th Judicial Circuit.
Phillips said Circuit Judge William Pearson also ruled that the jury can hear statements Dunn made to police after he was arrested in the Dec. 4 kidnapping.
Dunn's attorneys, Omar Greene, and Erin Lewis, had filed motions trying to suppress the Dec. 4 arrest statements, which Greene said haven't been made public. Pearson ruled on the three issues Monday.
Dunn's trial is set for Nov. 21-22 at the Franklin County courthouse in Ozark. It was moved from Russellville because Dunn's attorneys argued that he wouldn't be able to get a fair trial there.
Dunn was tried twice in the 2005 bludgeoning death of Nona Dirksmeyer, 19, a beauty queen and student at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. The jury deadlocked, ending in mistrials in both cases.
Dunn's attorneys argued that publicity from the Dirksmeyer murder trials would taint Pope County proceedings regarding the December kidnapping case.
"The [Dirksmeyer] case received massive news coverage within Arkansas and gained national notoriety," they wrote in a May 28 petition for change of venue. "It rendered Mr. Dunn a widely recognized, widely discussed figure in Pope County. An overwhelming assumption in the county is that Mr. Dunn 'got away with murder.'"
In his answer to the petition, Phillips wrote, "The minds of the inhabitants of Pope County are not prejudiced to such an extent that the defendant cannot receive a fair trial."
Greene said Phillips agreed Sunday to the change of venue, the day before the hearing in the case.
The 5th Judicial Circuit is composed of Franklin, Johnson and Pope counties. So, the case will continue to be handled by the same prosecutor.
Greene said both of Dunn's trials in the Dirksmeyer case were held in Clarksville, not in Pope County.
Dunn, 39, of Dardanelle has pleaded innocent to the charges of kidnapping, attempted kidnapping and indecent exposure from the December incident.
The Russellville Police Department said in a news release that officers were dispatched on the evening of Dec. 4 to the parking lot of First Baptist Church on South Denver Avenue to investigate a possible kidnapping attempt. When police arrived, the assailant had already left. The victim and a witness provided a description of the attacker and his vehicle, which was broadcast to surrounding agencies.
The victim, a 40-year-old woman, told police that a man approached her in the parking lot and tried to force her into her vehicle.
Police said officers were already investigating a similar incident that occurred a short time earlier on the Arkansas Tech campus. In that case, a vehicle pulled in behind a woman's vehicle in a parking lot.
"A white male subject approached the car and asked the female driver to step out of the vehicle," according to Russellville police. She called 911, and the man left.
The description of the assailant and the vehicle was similar in both cases, police said.
Later that night, police in Dardanelle stopped a vehicle that matched the descriptions. The driver was identified as Dunn. He was arrested and booked into the Pope County jail in Russellville.
In the 2002 case, Dunn was charged with attempted murder and second-degree battery after he attacked a female jogger on Bona Dea Trails in Russellville. A jury acquitted Dunn on the attempted-murder charge but convicted him of second-degree battery, according to Pope County Circuit Court records. He was sentenced to six years in prison.
During one of the Dirksmeyer murder trials in 2011, the jogger testified that Dunn attacked her in 2002. She said Dunn was sitting on a bench by the trail.
"I ran past him," she told the jury. "The trail then curved to the right. I heard footsteps running swiftly behind me. I turned to look and see who was coming."
Dunn was chasing her with a tree branch that was more than 2 feet long with a diameter larger than a baseball bat, she said, adding that Dunn hit her over the head with it.
While she was on the ground, the jogger said, Dunn started beating her with his fists, pounding her face, chest and ribs.
"He said, 'I'm going to f*g kill you,' over and over," she told the jury.
Somehow, she managed to get to her feet.
"I took off running like crazy back to my car," she testified.
She looked back to see Dunn running the other direction.
According to the Arkansas Department of Correction website, Dunn is being held in the Grimes Unit in Newport related to a 10-year sentence on a 2017 Logan County conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was released on parole on Aug. 27, but after his Dec. 4 arrest, parole was revoked and Dunn was returned to state prison on Dec. 21, said Dina Tyler, a spokesman for the department.
Metro on 07/18/2019