CONWAY - A Faulkner County jury took less than 3 hours to sentence a 20-year-old Pine Bluff man to life in prison in the 2018 murder and kidnapping of a 72-year-old Wooster woman.
Jurors went into deliberation at 2:10 p.m. and returned at 4:36 p.m. in the penalty phase of the trial against Tacori Mackrell, who was found guilty last Thursday in the capital murder, kidnapping, aggravated robbery and theft of property in the July 7, 2018, death of Elvia Fragstein.
The jury had the options of life in prison without possibility of parole or the death penalty.
"We got what we wanted," defense attorney William “Bill” James Jr. said after the sentencing. James and co-defense attorney Jeff Rosenzweig maintained from the beginning of the nearly three-and-a-half week trial that Mackrell had indeed committed the crime, but were hoping to convince a jury that Mackrell should not be executed for the murder of Fragstein.
Investigators believe Fragstein was shopping at the Conway Commons Shopping Center on July 7, 2018, when she was abducted by Mackrell, 18, at the time, and his cousin, Robert Smith II, who was 16 at the time. Smith is to be tried separately next month.
Faulkner County Circuit Judge Troy Braswell began the day by reading from 55 pages of jury instructions, which included 53 pages of 151 mitigating circumstances the defense couched as reasons the jury should not give Mackrell the death penalty.
Read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for the full story.