Plea hearing set for Arkansas teen in deaths of 2

Defense, prosecutor silent on Conway case proceeding

In this jail photo provided by Conway, Ark., Police Department, suspect Justin Staton stands by a door in Little Rock, Friday, Aug. 7, 2015.
In this jail photo provided by Conway, Ark., Police Department, suspect Justin Staton stands by a door in Little Rock, Friday, Aug. 7, 2015.

A judge has scheduled a plea hearing for Justin Staton, the youngest of four teenagers charged in the slayings of the couple who had raised him as a grandson.

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The hearing, set for 8 a.m. Tuesday , suggests Staton -- who pleaded innocent months ago -- could have reached a plea agreement with prosecutors. Any plea agreement would not take effect until and if it is approved in Faulkner County Circuit Court by Judge Troy Braswell at that time.

Staton -- who lived with the victims, Robert and Patricia Cogdell, in their west Conway home -- was 14 at the time of the July 21 shooting deaths. He has since turned 15.

No one associated with the case would comment on the likelihood of an agreement when contacted Tuesday.

Asked about next week's hearing, Staton's attorney, Gina Reynolds of the Arkansas Public Defender Commission, declined comment.

Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland also declined comment.

"I'm not in a position to comment on the rationale for the hearing until Tuesday," Hiland said. "We'll reserve any comment until resolution of the matter that morning."

When judges schedule plea hearings at this stage of a case, usually it indicates a defendant plans to change his plea and is a sign that the parties have reached an agreement for a defendant to plead guilty or no contest to one or more charges.

For a defendant to plead guilty, the prosecution, as well as the defense, must agree to waive the right to a jury trial, said Bill James, a criminal-defense attorney who is not involved in this case.

The other possibility could be a plea of innocent by reason of mental disease or defect, but James said Tuesday that such scheduling does not tend to point to that.

Neither the defense nor the prosecution has publicly requested a mental evaluation by the State Hospital.

Jeff Rosenzweig, another criminal-defense attorney not associated with this case, said Staton's attorneys could have had a private mental evaluation done and, because of attorney-client privilege, not mention it until and if it becomes part of the defense.

Staton and the other three teenagers remain jailed in the Cogdells' deaths. The Cogdells had been Staton's legal guardians since 2010 and had thought he was their grandson until a paternity test in 2008 proved their son was not the boy's father.

Staton and Hunter Drexler, 18, of Clinton were charged as adults with two counts each of capital murder, aggravated robbery, theft of property by threat, and abuse of a corpse. Drexler was 17 at the time of the killings.

Connor Atchley, 17, of Greenbrier and his girlfriend, Anastasia Roberts, 17, of Conway were charged as adults with two counts each of first-degree murder and felony theft by receiving.

Details of any plea agreement are not known. Sometimes a defendant pleads guilty to one or more charges he already faces. Often, both sides agree on a sentence to recommend to the presiding judge, who can accept or reject it.

Attorneys for all of the teenagers except Drexler have filed motions seeking to have their cases transferred to juvenile court, and Drexler's attorney, Patrick Benca, is expected to file a similar motion. The hearing on that issue for Staton is scheduled for May 17.

A defendant's youth can be a factor in sentencing.

Children, for instance, cannot be sentenced to death. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed execution for defendants who were younger than 18 at the time of a crime. In 2012, the high court struck down mandatory life-without-parole sentences for children, deciding that such defendants should be able to argue for an alternative, shorter sentence.

Further, in Arkansas, a first-degree murder conviction is punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in prison. A defendant who received a 40-year sentence would be eligible for parole after serving 28 years.

Under Arkansas Code Annotated 16-93-618, a defendant convicted of certain felonies, including first-degree murder, is not eligible for parole until he has served 40 percent of the sentence. But under that same statute, a sentencing judge can use discretion to waive the 40 percent minimum if the defendant was "a juvenile at the time of the offense; ... was merely an accomplice to the offense; and ... [the] offense occurred on or after July 28, 1995."

State Desk on 05/04/2016

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