State News

State News

Man imprisoned for 26 years freed after murder conviction overturned

LITTTLE ROCK – John Brown, a 51-year-old man from Nevada whose 1992 Dallas County murder conviction was overturned recently by a federal judge in Little Rock, walked free Wednesday after being imprisoned in Arkansas for 26 years.

On Aug. 21, U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson gave the state 30 days to either recharge Brown with the intention of retrying him or release him within 30 days. Wilson reviewed Brown’s conviction at the request of the Midwest Innocence Project and determined that his conviction in the murder of a 78-yearold Fordyce woman, Myrtle Holmes, was based on a false confession by a mentally limited co-defendant and the use of informants whose potential motives weren’t revealed to jurors.

The state is appealing Wilson’s order, but Wilson refused the state’s request to keep Brown behind bars while the appeal is pending, noting it could take two years.

Brown was released around noon Wednesday following a hearing in the Dallas County courthouse in Fordyce.

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Man hits passing train during high-speed chase

LITTLE ROCK – A man reportedly led a Pulaski County Sheriff's deputy on a high-speed chase on Roosevelt Road that ended when the suspect struck a passing train on Frazier Pike in Little Rock.

Ozell Smith III was driving with no headlights on Tuesday, Sept. 18 in a car that fit the description of one that was in an accident on Monday, Sept. 17, according to the sheriff's office.

The officer began following the Crown Victoria suspect vehicle, which had no license plate. The suspect turned the taillights off and the officer decided that pursuit was too dangerous. The officer continued onto Frazier Pike where they saw the suspect vehicle apparently crashed into a train at the Port Authority Railroad tracks.

The suspect was arrested but did not say where, or if there were any, other occupants of the car were. A glass methamphetamine pipe was found along with live rounds of ammunition. Smith is accused of operation of a vehicle without license plates, reckless driving, not displaying proper lights for a vehicle, fleeing, improper lane chance and possession of drug paraphernalia.