Photo: Mika Seay
Mika Seay, charged with criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder, domestic battery and commission of a felony with a firearm, was found not guilty in Baxter County Circuit Court Wednesday.
The case was unusual in that the victim, 33-year-old Stephen Loosey, claims he was shot accidentally through his own negligence, while the state charged the 37-year-old Seay, the victim’s ex-wife, with intentionally pulling the trigger.
Circuit Judge John Putman presided over the non-jury trial. After both sides rested Wednesday, Judge Putman wasted little time in ruling on the case.
In his opening statement Tuesday, Deputy Prosecutor Kerry Chism said the court would basically hear two versions of the events leading to the shooting on May 23 last year one from Seay and Loosey and one from two eyewitnesses who were at the scene.
Bond reduction hearing set for murder suspect
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Oakland man s bond revoked after being charged with new crimes in NW Arkansas
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Photo: Joshua Louis Brotherton
A Gamaliel man whose criminal record goes back 21 years returned to Baxter County Circuit Court to face new charges Thursday.
Forty-year-old Joshua Brotherton entered a not guilty plea to charges of theft of property and domestic battery.
He was booked into the Baxter County jail Feb. 26 with bond set at $7,000.
According to the probable cause affidavit, just after 2:30 a.m. Dec. 3, Baxter County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to an address along Arkansas Highway 101 where a woman was reported to need assistance.
The deputies found the woman standing along the driveway at the Highway 101 residence.
The victim told the lawmen she had been assaulted by Brotherton. She reported being “hit all over her body.”