Arkansas woman accused of killing 81-year-old grandmother with hammer

Andrea Lea Wilson
Andrea Lea Wilson

BENTONVILLE -- A Bentonville woman is accused of killing her grandmother by hitting the 81-year-old woman at least four times with a hammer, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Andrea Lea Wilson, 26, was arrested Monday in connection with capital murder and tampering with physical evidence. Her grandmother, Ruby Ross, was found dead May 16 in her Pea Ridge home.

Detectives with the Benton County sheriff's office found a bloody hammer with white hair in an outhouse behind Ross' house, according to court documents. The hammer was in a black plastic trash bag that also contained rubber gloves with blood on them, a large butcher-type knife and bank statements with Andrea Wilson's name on them, according to an affidavit filed in the case.

Pea Ridge police officers went to Ross' residence at 7:16 p.m. May 16 to assist sheriff's deputies, according to a report from the Pea Ridge Police Department. Leann Ross told a Pea Ridge officer that deputies did a welfare check earlier at her mother's residence but left after no one answered the door, according to the report.

Leann Ross said she went to her mother's home and found her in bed with blood splatter on the headboard. Ross said her niece was at Ruby Ross' home May 16 and may have been the last person to see her alive, according to the police report.

Detectives seized items from Wilson after her arrest Monday, including her purse, which appeared to have blood on it, according to the affidavit. Blood was found on the exterior door leading to Wilson's apartment at 7804 SW Blue Jay, Apt. 22, according to court documents. Detectives also found possible blood in her vehicle and on 5-gallon buckets in her car, according to the affidavit.

According to the affidavit, the property at 11001 Blue Jay Road had been split into three tracts, with tracts 1 and 2 in Andrea Wilson's and her brother Greg Wilson's names. Ross had filed a new deed removing the pair from the property, according to the affidavit.

Capital One also has an $11,569.19 judgment against Andrea Wilson, according to court documents.

Benton County prosecutor Nathan Smith, citing the severity of the charges and the likelihood of Wilson's conviction, requested during a hearing Wednesday that she be held without bail.

Jay Saxton, Benton County's chief public defender, represented Wilson at the hearing and requested that $100,000 bail be set.

"I don't think she has a criminal history," Saxton said.

Smith told Benton County Circuit Judge Robin Green that Wilson has traveled out of the country and that if a bail is set, he wants her to surrender her passport. Wilson said she went to Brazil several years ago and lived with her father in Tennessee years ago.

Green ruled Wednesday that probable cause exists to hold Wilson on murder and tampering charges and set her bail at $750,000. Green said Wilson must surrender her passport if she is able to post the bail.

Wilson's arraignment is scheduled for 8 a.m. June 18.

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State Desk on 05/24/2018

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