Gary Parks (Photo courtesy of Arkansas Department of Corrections)
In June 2006, Dr. David Millstein, a urologist in Mountain Home, was stabbed to death while he slept in his home over the Father’s Day weekend in one of the highest profile murder cases in Mountain Home history. Nearly seven years later, his step-son, Gary Wayne Parks, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison with 10 years suspended as part of a plea deal. He was eligible for parole this summer, and despite multiple law enforcement officials speaking against his release, the parole board granted his freedom July 29.
Very few details of the case were released during the investigation, but during the trial, it was learned Dr. Millstein was stabbed five or six times in the chest and then moved onto the floor where he was then stabbed 36 more times in the back. His throat was then slit. The assailant then attempted to set the house on fire which was unsuccessful.
The case was one that wore on investigators, taking three and a half years before they could get enough evidence for an arrest and six years and 10 months before they went to trial. Mountain Home Police were assisted by the Arkansas State Police in working the case.
Mountain Home Police Chief Eddie Griffin, who was a detective at the time, says he understands why the plea agreement was agreed to.
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Mark Hollingsworth, who is now the chief deputy for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, spent many years with the Arkansas State Police and was a sergeant and case agent who assisted the Mountain Home Police Department with the investigation. He says he understood the tough reality that Parks would eventually be released.
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Nevin Barnes, a detective at the time who has since retired from the police department and spent nearly one quarter of his 30 year career working the case, says the murder of Dr. Millstein happened simply because of money.
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Barnes says investigators believe it was Dr. Millstein’s estranged wife, Lois Jane Millstein, who lived in Little Rock with her son at the time, who got Parks to commit the murder.
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Barnes says Parks became a prime suspect very early in the investigation.
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Barnes says there was $800,000 in life insurance money, but unbeknownst to his estranged wife and Parks, he had recently changed the beneficiaries so she would only get half of the money, and his two sons would get half.
In part two of our story, we will have more about the murder of the Mountain Home doctor, the investigation and why one of the investigators believes Parks will wind up back in jail for an unsolved murder from 1993.
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