Charges against a man for participating in the murder of then 20-year-old Tyler Pickett of Mountain Home in late June 2019 were dropped during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Monday.
Forty-year-old Jeffery Scott Shepherd, who lived in Salesville at the time of the crime, was initially charged with first-degree murder and battery.
Prosecutors indicated the decision to drop the murder-related charges was made based on Shepherd’s cooperation with law enforcement. He was reported to have provided information that was key to solving the case.
27-year-old James Edward “Tyler” Davis of Norfork, is alleged to have been the person who actually shot Pickett with a .22 caliber rifle.
Davis recently entered a guilty plea to his part in the murder and was given 35 years in prison. He is currently an inmate in the Pine Bluff Unit of the state correctional system.
GUILTY TO OTHER CRIMES
Shepherd did plead guilty to charges in other crimes not related to the Pickett murder, including stealing tools and other items from a work truck. The theft was reported in mid November last year.
He was also charged with stealing a truck in late October last year.
He was put on probation for six years and ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution.
THE MURDER
Pickett’s mother filed a report with the Mountain Home Police Department in mid-September 2019. She said she had not been in touch with her son for about five months.
As investigators worked the missing person case, a tip came in that Pickett was not missing, but dead, and his body could be found in the Norfork area.
As the investigation heated up, more and more names began to surface and Shepherd was developed as a suspect.
On the day Pickett was killed, Shepherd was reported to have driven alone to a property located at 22 Windswept Trail in the Norfork area.
Once there, he met Davis, the victim and a female who had all come in the female’s car.
When Davis was booked into a jail in Northwest Arkansas at one time, he listed 22 Windswept Trail in Norfork as his address.
As soon as Pickett got out of the vehicle, Shepherd told investigators he hit the young man in the jaw with his fist, knocking him unconscious.
Shepherd was also said to have admitted kicking Pickett in the ribs while he was on the ground.
The battery charge initially filed against Shepherd stemmed from his beating of the victim just before he was killed.
According to the probable cause affidavit, once Pickett had come to from the blow administered by Shepherd, he and Davis walked the victim to a rubbish pile on the property.
Shepherd was reported to have told investigators Davis brandished a .22-caliber rifle at Pickett and then shot him several times. Pickett’s body was left in the rubbish pile.
Davis put the rifle back in Shepherds pickup truck and Shepherd left the area. Davis and the female were said to have departed later.
Investigators questioned the female witness. She alleged Davis had given her “narcotics” prior to Shepherd’s arrival and she had passed out, leaving her with little or no recollection of what transpired just before and just after the shooting.
The woman said when she woke up; she did not see the victim who had traveled with her and Davis to the site where he was executed.
She asked Davis what had happened to Pickett and he is alleged to have replied, “he’s dead, don’t worry about him. They will never find the body or the gun.”
No motive for the killing has surfaced in court records filed in the case.
While he was being held in the Baxter County jail in early February, Davis was reported to have tried unsuccessfully to hang himself with a blanket in the general population area of the detention center.
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