Photos: Skylar Brazil and Ashley Hendricks
Two of the four people charged with first-degree murder in the death of a Mountain Home man appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
Details on how the suspects came together and why they are suspected of killing 34-year-old Cody Stradford have yet to be disclosed by prosecutors.
Three of those being charged list Mountain Home addresses, but the fourth is a resident of Siloam Springs in Northwest Arkansas.
Stradford’s body was found in a burned-out vehicle just off Old Arkana Road on Dec. 16 last year. Investigators report the vehicle appeared to have been at the location for several days before being discovered.
The man’s family had posted notices offering a reward for information on his whereabouts and reported not having had contact with him since Dec. 4.
It was reported he was last seen at his parents’ residence in Mountain Home and later the same day in the Fayetteville area.
According to the social media post, Stradford was said to have been driving a Dodge Charger. The vehicle was described as having damage along the passenger’s side.
During their court appearances Thursday, 38-year-old Skylar Brazil of Mountain Home and 35-year-old Ashley Nicole Hendricks of Siloam Springs entered not guilty pleas to the charges against them.
Brazil is accused of first-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a felon, second-degree battery, violating parole and kidnapping. Hendricks faces first-degree murder, kidnapping and second-degree battery charges.
Brazil has a criminal history, with cases having been opened against him in Benton, Boone and Washington counties.
Court records show that most of the cases involved drugs.
After he was developed as a suspect in the murder investigation, he was located and arrested Dec. 16 last year. Brazil attempted to flee but was found hiding in weeds by tracking dogs from the Arkansas Department of Correction.
No information is available as to what brought Brazil to this area.
Hendricks was arrested at a home along South Mt. Olive Street in Siloam Springs Dec. 19 last year.
Benton County tax records show her to be the owner of the property.
In addition to the charges stemming from the murder, she has a criminal case open in Madison County.
She is accused of being in simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms, a Class Y felony.
Hendricks also is charged with possession of methamphetamine, heroin, ecstasy and fentanyl with the purpose to deliver, according to Madison County court records.
According to criminal information filed in the case, Hendricks was alleged to have had the drugs and weapon in Madison County on July 19.
She is scheduled to appear in Madison County Circuit Court in early March.
Cases have been set up and posted on electronic court records for Hendricks and Brazil. Most of the information is sealed by court order.
Two other people are accused in the murder — Ryan James Lindsey and Allison Cunningham. They were arrested in south Texas near the U.S./Mexico border about 900 miles south of Mountain Home and have been locked up in the Hidalgo County, Texas jail.
An extradition hearing was scheduled for Jan. 8. Cunningham was returned to Arkansas and booked into the Baxter County Detention Center Wednesday about 10:30 p.m.
Photo: Allison Cunningham
A case file has also been opened and posted for her on electronic court records.
Lindsey’s is the most familiar name among those arrested. His criminal history goes back to 2010, when he was a teenager.
After that first brush with the law, he had other criminal charges brought against him in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 and last year.
Through the years, the 27-year-old Lindsey has been accused of possessing a defaced firearm, being a felon in possession of a weapon, residential burglary, theft of property, possession of contraband in the Baxter County Detention Center, theft by receiving and possessing drugs.
All of his crimes were committed in Baxter County, although he had apparently been living in Little Rock for some period in the recent past.
At one point, he was being supervised while on parole by the Arkansas Community Corrections office in Little Rock.
He has been locked up in the state prison system and the county jail.
His latest release from prison came on April 23 last year. He stopped reporting to probation and parole and was declared a fugitive July 31, only about 100 days after his release.
He was rearrested Aug. 19 and charged with theft by receiving stemming from an allegation he was in possession of a motorcycle reported stolen in Mountain Home in early July.
He apparently bonded out of jail on the charge relating to the motorcycle theft and was free on that bond when Stradford was killed.
According to Hidalgo County, Texas jail records, Lindsey has been charged in that state with unlawful possession of a weapon.
In addition to murder charges, the 42-year-old Cunningham of rural Mountain Home is accused of arson, as is Lindsey.
Court records do not show that Cunningham has ever had a criminal case opened in this county.
A million dollar bond has been set for Cunningham and Lindsey, and bonds of a half-million-dollars each for Brazil and Hendricks.
Ironically, Cunningham was the victim of crime herself while sitting in the Texas jail awaiting extradition to Baxter County.
According to the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office, 52-year-old Lawrence Olson of Mountain Home has been charged with breaking into Cunningham’s residence along Robinson Point Road.
Photo: Lawrence Olson
The home had apparently been entered Dec. 23 last year and then again on Christmas Day.
Olson was found hiding under a bed in the residence, when deputies checked out the property on Dec. 25.
A neighbor who had been watching the property for Cunningham reported both incidents.
Olson is alleged to have told deputies he had permission from Cunningham to be in the residence, and that he had made entry on Christmas Day only to “take a nap.”
Cunningham was contacted and reported she had not given Olson permission to be in her home.
When arrested, Olson is alleged to have had possession of jewelry, debit cards and other items belonging to Cunningham, according to the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office.
Olson is in the Baxter County Detention Center with bond set at $25,000. He also appeared in circuit court Thursday and entered a not guilty plea to the charges against him.
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