Photo: Cody Robert Whitten
An inmate at the state prison in Calico Rock caught smuggling contraband obtained on work details in Mountain Home into the facility has pled guilty to the charges against him. The plea came during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court last Thursday.
Thirty-three-year-old Cody Robert Whitten of Ozark made his appearance by way of a video hookup. He was sentenced to five years in prison to run concurrent with the time he is already serving.
Whitten entered the prison system in August 2017 after being sentenced to 35-years for shooting a man in the head and killing him.
Photo: Austin Brice Helms
A Mountain Home man’s alleged association with firearms has resulted in criminal cases being filed against him in both Baxter and Boone counties.
Twenty-year-old Austin Brice Helms pled not guilty to the charges against him during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
His latest arrest came Dec. 4 when he was taken into custody by Baxter County deputies and booked into the detention center on a charge of aggravated robbery.
The charge stemmed from an incident involving three men, including Helms. They were reported to have gone to the Executive Inn on Sept. 14 and robbed a man they had met earlier in the evening.
Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery says the identity of the murder victim found last week on Old Arkana Road has been confirmed. Sheriff Montgomery says the Arkansas State Medical Examiner’s Office has confirmed the victim is 35-year-old Cody Benjamin Stradford of rural Mountain Home.
Stradford’s family posted a missing person notification earlier this month containing a physical description of him and information on the type vehicle he was driving.
According to the posting he had not been seen since Dec. 4.The information that appeared on Missing Persons of Arkansas indicated Stradford was last seen at his parents’ house in Mountain Home, and that he was apparently in the Fayetteville area later in the day.
Photos: (from left) Matthew Braden and Lakota Tripp
The second of two Kansas men, who stole vehicles to make their way to Arkansas and ended up crashing one of them in the parking lot of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie at Midway, pled guilty to the charges against him in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
Twenty-one-year-old Matthew Braden was sentenced to six years probation and ordered to pay $2,500 restitution for damage done to a sign at the Eagles Aerie.
The other man involved in the incident, 24-year-old Lakota Tripp was sentenced to five years in the Arkansas Department of Correction, with three suspended and two to serve in December last year.
Photo: Douglas Alan Daniel
A man unhappy with the lack of repairs to the mobile home he rented is now charged with taking his frustration out on his landlord in an altercation involving shots fired.
Sixty-year-old Douglas Alan Daniel appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday. Sam Pasthing told the court he would represent Daniel.
Daniel had already entered a not guilty plea to the charges against him.
On Oct. 7, Baxter County deputies responded to a mobile home park along State Highway 126 North, where an altercation involving a weapon had been reported.
When the deputies arrived, they made contact with Daniel. He was reported to have been intoxicated to the point he was confused, slurring his words and unsteady on his feet.