Photo: Retired Circuit Judge Gordon Webb
Tentative trial dates have been set for a number of Baxter County criminal cases being handled by retired Circuit Judge Gordon Webb.
The cases involve charges of murder and rape and are expected to take several days to try.
Dockets are overcrowded in most of the 14th Judicial District because of COVID-19 restrictions placed on the operation of courts.
Judge Webb was assigned by the Arkansas Supreme Court at the request of Circuit Judge John Putman to assist in clearing the backlog in Baxter, Boone and Marion counties.
In all, Judge Webb has been assigned 20 cases – six of which are from Baxter County.
The clogged docket problem is evidenced by the fact that in Baxter County alone 11 murder trials are waiting to either go before a jury or be settled by plea.
During a session held in Boone County Circuit Court Nov. 2, Judge Webb set a week in mid-February next year for the murder trial of 39-year-old Jeffery Shepherd and the rape trials of 37-year-old Bradley Uren and 39-year-old Roger Hicks.
Photos: (from left) Jeffery Shepherd, Bradley Uren and Roger Hicks
A status hearing was set for Dec. 16 in the case of 22-year-old Savannah Wren who is charged with second-degree murder.
Photo: Savannah Nicole Wren
Wren also has a criminal case in Marion County in which she is alleged to have had sex with a teenage high school student while a substitute teacher in at least two of his classes.
The Marion County case is not currently assigned to Judge Webb and is now set for jury trial Nov. 22 before Judge Putman. Wren has a private attorney representing her, according to court records.
Judge Webb set March 14 next year to hold a hearing on pre-trial motions in the murder case of 19-year-old Baxter Stowers.
Photo: Baxter Stowers
Stowers’ attorney, Shane Wilkinson of Bentonville, told the court during the recent hearing in Boone County it might be possible to resolve the case without a jury trial.
No tentative trial date was set for 28-year-old James Tyler Davis, who is also charged with murder. He is an inmate in the state prison system on earlier charges. According to court records, Davis now has no attorney.
Photo: James Edward Tyler Davis
THE CASES
Davis and Shepherd are accused of killing then 20-year old Tyler Pickett in late June 2019 and leaving his body on a trash dump in the Norfork area.
Uren and Hicks are both charged with rape involving alleged sexual contact with family members.
Wren is charged with shooting and killing then 19-year old Chaseton Lewter in late November 2020. The victim’s body was found in a bedroom of Wren’s residence along Cooper Estates Drive.
Stowers was charged with shooting and killing then 41-year-old Jeremy Wayne Alman in early October last year.
Shepherd, Uren and Hicks are represented by Sherwood attorney Latonya Laird-Austin-Honorable, on assignment from the Arkansas Public Defender Commission.
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