Troubled slasher of pal gets life

Jury in Hot Springs rejects defense claim of mental disease

— There were no sobs. Or hugs. Or outbursts of indignation.

A murder trial concluded Friday with a nearly empty courtroom.

No friends or family came to see what would become of Kevin Ray Pearcy, and only two detectives stood by on behalf of the homeless manhe stabbed to death.

It was a quiet end to a grisly case involving two men who lived life on the margins.

A jury took less than anhour to convict Pearcy, 34, of capital murder.

Members of the jury rejected claims that he was too mentally disturbed to control himself when he repeatedly plunged a knife into his friend’s neck on July 5, 2008.

Pearcy was sentenced to life in prison without parole, an outcome he thinks is best.

“I know I’m going where I need to go,” Pearcy told Circuit Judge John Homer Wright.

The jury heard about a lifetime of troubling behavior, beginning with Pearcy screaming bloody murder in the bathtub when his mother tried to wash him, hacking cats’ heads off, urinating on a friend, holding his stepfather at gunpoint while dressed like the “Terminator,” and ultimately a message from God that it was OK to kill Stacy Lewis.

The jury also heard from a state psychiatrist that Pearcy described becoming so aroused by his friend’s corpse the day after the killing that he committed sex acts with it.

Pearcy eventually dumped the decomposing remains in a trash can near an apartment he had secured for a brief time last year.

“Kevin Pearcy should rot in prison like Stacy Lewis did in that trash can,” Garland County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Oliver said.

The defense argued that Pearcy had a history of mental illness - bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other problems - that contributed to his behavior.

Public Defender Mark Fraiser never tried to “sugarcoat” the “horrific” details of the case and told the jury his client was guilty of committing homicide.

But he urged the seven women and five men to consider the testimony of a psychologist who testified for the defense that Pearcy was unable to control his behavior when he was off his medications.

Fraiser reminded jurors of Pearcy’s mother’s tearful testimony Thursday about her son’s history of mental illness.

“She told you her own flesh and blood should never be in society again,” Fraiser said.

He asked the jury to acquit Pearcy due to “mental disease or defect,” which would have prompted an evaluation to see if he should be hospitalized or released.

Pearcy had confessed to police during a chance encounter five weeks after the murder.

“Is his mind warped to the point that this is part of his plan, too?” Fraiser asked of his confession. “He’s admitted to it, so now he’s back to the center of attention.”

It was a killing authorities acknowledge could have gone unnoticed.

Homeless-shelter workers thought Lewis, 31, was bound for Colorado, possibly to attend a Bible college or see those he called his “Christian brothers.”

No one knew he was missing.

For weeks, his remains were wrapped in bedding under piles of trash and household cleaners that masked the odor of decomposition. His body could have beendumped in the landfill without notice.

Prosecutors described how Pearcy planned the crime - buying a knife at a souvenir shop, having Lewis sleep over and then asking God for permission to kill.

After getting goose bumps on his arm - which Pearcy said he believed signaled that God approved - Pearcy approached a sleeping Lewis with a knife and began to unzip Lewis’ pants, according to testimony.

Lewis resisted his advances, so Pearcy stabbed him over and over, according to testimony.

At some point, he bound Lewis’ wrists together.

Pearcy committed the sex acts the day after the killing, he told Dr. Stacy McBain during an evaluation at the State Hospital last year.

He ate, smoke, showered and took medication in between, he told the doctor.

Pearcy didn’t testify during the trial.

After the jury left the courtroom, he stood before the judge in jacket and tie and said he always felt remorse.

And he said he never tried to make excuses for what he did.

“I had no reason to kill him, except I just wanted to,” he said.

Arkansas, Pages 13 on 12/12/2009

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