Photo: Tony Griffin
A man who pled no contest to charges stemming from the stabbing of a woman in early August 2018 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison dropped his effort to obtain post conviction relief Thursday.
The video hearing in Baxter County Circuit Court was over almost before it started. Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Carter told Circuit Judge John Putman the state wanted the petition dismissed because it was not filed within the time limit set by law.
The judge had no more said he would take the state’s motion under advisement, when 50-year-old Tony Griffin, who filed paperwork in late January alleging a number of reasons he believes the court should grant him relief, appeared on screen and said he wanted to “drop the whole thing, leave it alone.”
Griffin, who has alleged he was threatened in this area because he is black, said he did not want to proceed with the Rule 37 Petition, “because my life is more important than this.”
As with most such petitions, Griffin contends his lawyer did not provide him with information on his case on a timely basis. He also alleges he was coerced into taking a plea.
In his petition for post conviction relief, Griffin said he had wanted his case moved to a county where he could have a jury of his peers, but stated his attorney would not bring the issue to the attention of the court.
On the change of venue issue, Carter contends if Griffin’s trial had been moved, the case would have to be heard in another county within the 14th Judicial District that are basically no different demographically than Baxter.
Carter writes further that Griffin’s request for a change of venue would most likely not have met his goal since the “Boone County town of Zinc is also the headquarters of the local Ku Klux Klan.”
Griffin was initially charged with criminal attempt to commit murder in the first degree and third-degree battery. The charges were reduced to first-degree battery.
Griffin was arrested Aug. 4, 2018, when police were called to a Mountain Home motel where they reported finding two people covered in blood.
A woman said she had been stabbed, and Griffin is alleged to have admitted he was the one who had wielded the knife.
According to court records, Griffin and the woman were arguing, when Griffin is alleged to have grabbed her by the throat, pulled her from the bicycle she was on and stabbed her a number of times.
He told officers the woman owed him money, and she had threatened to have him “taken care of,” if he kept demanding repayment. Griffin demonstrated to police officers how he had grabbed the victim and stabbed her.
When the victim was interviewed at Baxter Regional Medical Center, she said she had been staying in Griffin’s motel room for nearly two weeks. She told police on the day of the altercation, she had gone to the motel to return Griffin’s room key, since she wanted to end the relationship.
According to the woman, Griffin was attempting to pull her into his room when the stabbing occurred. The altercation ended when other people in the area came to assist, after hearing the woman’s cries for help.
In cases opened against Griffin in a southern Arkansas county, he was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm and for making threats to a supervisor at a flooring company where he worked and to a woman he dated. He is serving a 20-year sentence on the firearms charge and is an inmate at the Tucker Unit of the state prison system.
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