A McDonald County jury convicted a Garfield, Ark., man Friday of 13 felony counts in connection with a September 2009 cattle rustling incident in southern McDonald County.
However, the defendant, Holder P. Crow, 44, was also found not guilty of three counts of animal abuse in connection with the incident.
Crow, along with Ricky K. Obenshain, 34, of Hinesville, Ark., and Stephanie Weston, 36, of Pea Ridge, were arrested Sept. 8 after a motorist traveling north on U.S. 71 spotted what appeared to be a cow’s leg dragged beneath a trailer as it was pulled north on the highway. Shortly afterward, troopers with the Missouri State Highway Patrol stopped a 1986 Ford pickup and the trailer near Route B. Inside the trailer, troopers found 11 head of cattle with the leg of one cow sticking through a hole in the floor and dragging on the roadway. Because of injuries, four of the cattle had to be destroyed at a local veterinarian’s office, a highway patrol spokesman said.
It was later determined the cattle had been taken from southern McDonald County.
In January, Obenshain pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing more than $500, but less than $25,000 and animal abuse. He was sentenced to eight years in prison. A jury trial has been set for June 29 for Weston, with an alternative date of Aug. 10.
A sentencing hearing for Crow has been set for July 14.
Crow’s father, Arthur Crow, 79, of Pineville, has been charged with tampering with a judicial proceeding, a Class C felony.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed by Deputy William Travis Horn, the older Crow reportedly phoned the Springfield Metro Bar Association, telling Daniel Clay, an attorney there, “that Judge LePage needed to die, that he had the means to do it, and was going to take the matter into his own hands.”
Arthur Crow is currently being held in the McDonald County Jail in lieu of a $100,000 bond.
The charge is punishable by up to seven years in prison, if a conviction is reached.
