PINE BLUFF — David Black, accused in the beating death of his 11-year-old stepson last year in Star City, entered a plea of guilty to capital murder before Circuit Judge Alex Guynn Thursday afternoon, according to Prosecuting Attorney Kyle Hunter.
In doing so, Black accepted a sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole, thereby escaping a possible death sentence, Hunter said.
David Black, 38, and Mary Black, 30, the boy’s stepfather and mother, were charged in June in the death of Joseph Carsello, whose body was found by Star City police on June 16 inside a camper trailer at 212 Spring St. in Star City, about 25 miles southeast of Pine Bluff.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed in Lincoln County District Court in July of 2019, police who were called to the residence on June 16, just before 4:30 p.m., found David Black hovering over Joseph, who was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.
According to the affidavit, Mary Black told police that she and David Black had whipped Joseph with belts on Saturday evening, June 15, as punishment for trying to run away. As the whipping was happening, Joseph began talking back to his mother, the affidavit said, and the Blacks responded by striking him in the face with their hands.
An autopsy revealed that Joseph died from multiple blunt force injuries. The boy had multiple scalp contusions; multiple impact sites on his head and torso; bruising of his arms, legs, thighs, and buttocks; abdominal hemorrhaging; hemorrhaging of the pancreas; and a lacerated liver.
Hunter said that Mary Black is still scheduled for a jury trial, which, according to court records, is scheduled for July 9 in Lincoln County with Judge Guynn presiding. If convicted, Mary Black could face the death penalty.
If she were convicted and a death sentence were carried out, she would be only the second woman to be put to death in Arkansas in modern times, said Dina Tyler, spokeswoman for Arkansas Department of Correction, in an interview last August.
Christina Marie Riggs was executed on May 2, 2000, after being convicted of murdering her two children, Justin Thomas and Shelby Riggs, at the family’s Sherwood home in November 1997.
Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.