Photos: Suspects Kyla R. Croney, Levi Daniel Gunter and Joey Allen Marcak. Photos: Courtesy West Plains Police Department
Formal charges have been filed against a third suspect in connection with an alleged double homicide earlier this week in West Plains.
Information released Friday morning from the West Plains Police Department indicates 31-year-old Joey Allen Marcak of West Plains is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of armed criminal action and one count of first-degree robbery.
Marcak’s bond is set at $1,000,000 cash or corporate surety.
ORIGINAL REPORT:
A woman from Viola and two men from Missouri have been arrested and charged in connection with an alleged double homicide earlier this week in West Plains.
The West Plains Police Department (WPPD) in a Facebook posting says the three were arrested Thursday in connection with the alleged murders of 30-year-old Richard L. Kuntz of West Plains and 28-year-old Frankie L. Ziegler of Mountain View. Kuntz and Ziegler were found in a car Tuesday night, dead of apparent gunshot wounds.
The West Plains Daily Quill reports the three suspects in the case are 34-year-old Kyla R. Croney of Viola and 37-year-old Levi Daniel Gunter and 31-year-old Joey Allen Marcak, both of West Plains. Croney is reported to be a cousin of the two men from West Plains.
West Plains Police Chief Stephen Monticelli says in a statement released Thursday evening Croney implicated herself and Gunter in the crime, after being arrested shortly after midnight Thursday.
Court documents submitted to prosecutors show Gunter allegedly named a third suspect he said fired at the victims with a shotgun, after they were lured to the scene of the crime under the pretense of a drug deal.
Prior to the incident, the third suspect, later identified as Marcak had reportedly told Croney and Gunter the victims had stolen a car and money from him.
Gunter allegedly told police the third suspect got out of the vehicle when they got to the location, hid in the bushes with a shotgun until the victims arrived, then fired four or five shots into the vehicle.
Croney, in her statement to police, reportedly said she and Gunter met with a man she didn’t know on Lanton Road, and the three of them went to the location on County Road 4000, after calling the victims to set up a drug deal. She added that the man had a “rifle” with him, and when the three arrived at the location, he got out of their vehicle and shot the victims.
The bodies of Kuntz and Ziegler were found in their vehicle parked on a private driveway. The discovery was made by the property owner, who reported the incident to police at about 7 p.m. Tuesday night.
Gunter also reportedly told Detective Bryan Brauer that after the shootings, the three of them went to his home off of AB Highway, taking Croney’s SIM card out of her cellphone and destroying it on the way. At his home, Gunter said, the third suspect took off the clothes he was wearing and put them in a furnace, along with five spent shotgun shells, police reported.
Gunter reportedly said he then borrowed a cutting torch from a friend and assisted the third suspect in melting the shotgun down with it. The unburned pieces of the shotgun and the brass from the shells were then buried in three separate locations near his property, Gunter allegedly told Brauer.
WPPD says two counts of first-degree murder and armed criminal action, along with one count of attempted robbery, are filed against Croney and Gunter, with their bonds set at $500,000. Charges against Marcak are pending.
WPPD thanked the Fulton County Sheriff’s Department, the Salem Police Department and the Arkansas State Police for their assistance in the investigation that led into Arkansas.
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