About 5:45 Tuesday morning helicopters from the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Army National Guard touched down outside the residence of a parole absconder in the Gilbert area of Searcy County. By about 6:00, 52-year-old Gene McCutcheon of St. Joe had been taken into custody without incident.
On board the Baxter County Sheriff’s helicopter piloted by officer Benny Magness and the guard helicopter were eight law enforcement personnel under the direction of the Department of Community Corrections’ Special Response Team. Officers from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the Buffalo National River Park Service were also part of the effort, as was the K9 team from the North Central Unit of the Department of Correction at Calico Rock.
Community Corrections Deputy Director Dina Tyler says McCutcheon has been a parole absconder since March 2015. He was released from the Department of Correction in 2013 after serving time for domestic battery, false imprisonment and terroristic threatening, but according to CourtConnect, he was facing a felony charge of possession of a firearm by a certain person nearly two years later. The Searcy County Sheriff’s Office and Probation Parole Officer Cody Cassell executed a home visit to McCutcheon’s residence in Marshall and located two firearms, ammunition and a large baggie containing marijuana seeds. As a parolee, McCutcheon was prohibited from possessing a firearm. A bench warrant was issued for his arrest in December of that year.
Law enforcement utilized the helicopters and the surprise approach because McCutcheon has a history of slipping past them in previous efforts to take him into custody.
McCutcheon was transported to the Baxter County Detention Center where he is currently being held without bond.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI