PINE BLUFF -- David Black, accused in the beating death of his 11-year-old stepson last year in Star City, pleaded guilty to capital murder Thursday before Circuit Judge Alex Guynn, according to Prosecuting Attorney Kyle Hunter.
In doing so, Black accepted a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole, thereby escaping a possible death sentence, Hunter said.
Black, 38, and Mary Black, 30, the boy's mother, were charged in June in the death of Joseph Carsello, whose body was found by Star City police on June 16 in 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, police who were called to the residence just before 4:30 p.m., found David Black hovering over the youth, who was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.
Mary Black told police that she and David Black had whipped Joseph with belts on the evening of June 15, as punishment for trying to run away, the affidavit said. 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.
The boy's mother told police that Joseph pulled away from them and kicked his stepfather in the mouth, causing David Black's lip to bleed, then the boy fell down some stairs and hit his head on a toolbox.
The next day, according to Mary Black, Joseph returned from swimming at a neighbor's house, picked up a hammer and swung it at David Black. Mary Black said she and her husband then "went a little crazy on him to teach him not to swing a hammer."
The Blacks began whipping Joseph with their hands, belts and a paddle, and told him to go stand in the corner, according to the affidavit. Mary Black told police that they noticed Joseph lying on the floor a short time later, and the couple began pouring water on him to try to wake him up, according to the affidavit.
David Black then noticed that Joseph wasn't breathing, the affidavit said.
Mary Black told police that she didn't know how the bruises got on Joseph's face because "she didn't think she or David hit him that hard, but she wasn't sure," according to the affidavit.
David Black told police that he "spanked the s*** out of Joseph" on June 15. He told police that while he was spanking Joseph, the boy rolled over and kicked him in the mouth, busting Black's lip. Black told police "that's why his butt looked the way it did," according to the affidavit.
An autopsy revealed that Joseph died from multiple blunt force injuries. The boy had multiple scalp bruises; multiple impact sites on his head and torso; bruising on his arms, legs, thighs and buttocks; abdominal hemorrhaging; hemorrhaging of the pancreas; and a lacerated liver.
Hunter said Mary Black is still scheduled for a jury trial, which, according to court records, is set for July 9 in Lincoln County with 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, Arkansas Department of Correction spokeswoman Dina Tyler said in an August interview.
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.
State Desk on 02/07/2020