Rick A. Headley of Mountain Home, who is accused of stabbing his estranged wife to death at the Dollar General Store on Highway 5 South Tuesday, appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday to have his formal charges read to him and to be advised of his rights as he proceeds through the legal process.
Circuit Court Judge John Putman conducted the Rule 8.1 hearing and informed Headley was being charged with capital murder, false imprisonment, terroristic threatening, aggravated assault, violation of a protective order and criminal trespass.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Mountain Home Police officers responded to a report of a stabbing at the retail store about 10 p.m. Tuesday. When officers entered the store, they reported finding 38-year-old Kirstie Headley, an employee at Dollar General, lying on the floor.
Rick Headley was reported to have entered the store, grabbed his estranged wife by the shirt and dragged her outside. Witnesses told officers they saw Headley with a knife in his right hand and saw him stab his estranged wife several times. Video surveillance cameras at the store captured scenes of the estranged wife walking back into the store holding her chest. They reported she was covered with blood. Emergency medical personnel arrived and transported the victim to Baxter Regional Medical Center where she died a short time later.
Officers reported Rick Headley fled the scene. He was captured a few hours later and is reported to have told officers he went to his wife’s place of employment to kill her. Interviews with family members have since confirmed his intentions.
According to electronic court records, Kirstie Headley has filed two affidavits seeking orders of protection to keep Rick Headley away from her. In both, she mentions he had threatened her with a knife in one case and had actually stabbed her in the hip on another occasion. She says in one of the affidavits Headley had become more obsessive and controlling in the relationship.
Headley was captured after a friend of his called the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office and reported Headley was at his home and wanted to surrender. Law enforcement officers converged on the address and took Headley into custody.
Headley is currently an inmate in the Baxter County Detention Center. There was no bond set during Thursday’s proceedings.
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