Photo: Robert Dean Penny
A man who pled guilty to shooting and killing his landlord is continuing his efforts to have his prison sentence reduced.
Sixty-three-year-old Robert Dean Penny was initially charged with first-degree murder in early December 2017. It was alleged Penny killed 71-year-old Chester Hornowski.
Mistrial on murder charge
A mistrial was declared on the murder charge in September 2019, after a Baxter County Circuit Court jury was unable to reach a verdict as to Penny’s guilt or innocence after deliberating for about six hours.
Penny’s retrial on the murder charge had to be delayed because of COVID-19 restrictions on the operation of courts in the state.
The retrial was eventually made unnecessary when Penny pled guilty May 6 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder.
However, Penny apparently thought better of his guilty plea. He filed for Rule 37 post-conviction relief just a month after sentencing.
Penny claims his confession was coerced and that he was effectively denied council. A Rule 37 hearing has been set for Oct. 21.
When he appeared before Circuit Judge John Putman in May, Penny — as are all defendants who enter pleas — was asked a series of questions written to illicit any complaints about the plea in open court and to discover if any coercion was applied.
Penny told the court he was taking the plea freely and voluntarily.
Guilty on some charges
At the conclusion of his 2019 trial, the jury did find Penny guilty of aggravated assault and criminal mischief stemming from events following the shooting, and recommended he be sentenced to 12 years in prison by “stacking” two six-year sentences.
The after the shooting events began when Penny was reported to have bolted from the building, gotten into his 2004 pickup truck and made a wild dash to get away from the scene.
During his attempt to flee, Penny came close to running down a Baxter County deputy sheriff. The deputy was one of a number of lawmen who answered active shooter 911 calls from the address on Old Military road.
The deputy testified he could hear the engine of Penny’s vehicle accelerating and testified it was headed straight toward him.
Officers fired at the truck in an attempt to disable the vehicle or the driver to protect fellow officers. They also wanted to prevent what was described as a potentially very dangerous pursuit, if Penny had been able to drive away.
Penny told investigators he had not seen the deputy and, if he had seen him, “I certainly would not have hit him. I had already screwed up enough” for one day.
The criminal mischief charge stemmed from Penny plowing into an unoccupied SUV assigned to Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery. According to court records, about $18,400 in damage was done to the county-owned vehicle.
The murder
According to investigative records, Penny is accused of shooting Hornowski 18 times, reloading and firing four more rounds into the victim’s body.
Penny and others rented rooms in a complex owned by Hornowski located along Old Military Road. It was described as a “boarding-house-type-arrangement.”
The shooting was reported to have been sparked by an eviction threat, apparently based on Penny’s refusal to participate in what were described as “work details” with other tenants.
According to testimony during Penny’s September 2019 trial, residents often “paid down” their rent by working around the property.
One former tenant testified during Penny’s trial that the chores included mowing, cutting wood, raking and doing small construction projects.
Hornowski, a 34-year-veteran of the Chicago Police Department, had reportedly operated a similar-type, multi-resident facility in the Illinois city prior to retiring to the Twin Lakes Area.
Self defense
Penny’s lawyer argued the shooting was in self-defense and happened only after Hornowski “came at” Penny in a rage.
Hornowski and Penny had allegedly been meeting about Penny not doing work around the property. Penny told investigators he was retired and had a number of health problems, making it difficult to meet Hornowski’s requests.
Apparently during that meeting, Hornowski told Penny if he could not work on the property, he would have to move.
Penny did not testify during his trial. Prosecutors did play a videotaped interview in which Penny told investigators Hornowski had punched him in the chest, was yelling and screaming,” with his face “all bloated and red.”
Officers reported they were unable to find visible marks on Penny’s body to support his allegation of being struck.
Penny said he warned the landlord to leave him alone, but “he came at me with those big, fat fists all balled up.” It was at that point, P,enny said, he got a pistol from his room and shot Hornowski.
Prosecutor: Not a self-defense case
During the 2019 trial, Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge said shooting Hornowski 22 times was not self-defense; especially considering Penny reloaded and fired four more times after the initial volley of 18 shots.
The prosecutor told the jury in the original trial “this case is not about self-defense, this case is about choices, including Penny’s decision to shoot Hornowski multiple times.”
Former Deputy Public Defender Sam Pasthing, who represented Penny during his initial trial, told the jury, his client was “attacked” by Hornowski and Penny feared the attack would continue.”
Penny told investigators he was angry with Hornowski at the time, because if he had been asked to move, “it would have ruined my life.”
Ethredge asked member of the jury, “how mad would you have to be to pull the trigger 18 times, then reload and shoot the victim, who was dead or dying, four more times?”
Penny told investigators Hornowski was “an abuser of senior citizens,” requiring his tenants to do work for him. Penny told the investigators even though Hornowski knew he was not in good health, “he was always coming up with something he wanted you to do.”
Penny has already been unsuccessful in trying to have his initial 12-year sentence reduced. He took his claims to the Arkansas Court of Appeals, but that court ruled against him in January.
The effort to have his 12-year sentence reduced was based on the allegation that now retired Circuit Judge Gordon Webb did not exercise discretion in allowing the two six-year sentences for aggravated assault and criminal mischief to be stacked.
Penny argued in filings with the Appeals Court that the judge “automatically accepted the jury’s recommendation.”
The state countered there was no evidence to show Judge Webb did not exercise discretion in considering the sentence for Penny.
In his instructions to the jury, Judge Webb pointed out that he was not bound to accept what the jurors recommended.
In the end, however, Judge Webb did give Penny the sentence the jury wanted him to have.
It was further argued that Penny did not bring up the issue of stacked sentences during the trial, and those type issues cannot be “first raised on appeal.”
If the defense had objected to the stacked sentences and Judge Webb had overruled the objection, then the issue could have been taken to a higher court.
The state dismissed a charge filed against Penny for possessing contraband while in the Baxter County jail.
Penny is an inmate in the Pine Bluff Unit of the state prison system.
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