Sutherland murder suspect fit to stand trial

JACKSON COUNTY— The man accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering Sydney Sutherland told a psychologist that he “went to work just like normal” after burying her in a rice field.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Harold Erwin ordered mental exams in December 2020 for Quake Lewellyn, a 28-year-old farmer from Jonesboro. The exams were requested by Lewellyn’s attorney, according to previous reporting.

Sutherland, 25, of Tuckerman, was reported missing on Aug. 19, 2020, after she didn’t return home from jogging along Arkansas 18 between Newport and Grubbs.

Following an extensive search from area law enforcement and 200 volunteers, her body was found two days later.

Lewellyn told a mental health professional that he was checking wells and rice fields when he struck Sutherland with his pickup truck, documents show.

When he got out of the vehicle to check on her, he said he believed she was dead.

“At this point, I was scared and afraid I was gonna be in trouble for running her over,” Lewellyn said.

The suspect then loaded the woman’s body into the tailgate of his truck, drove her to a rice field and dug a hole because “that was just where I was and where I was going to begin with.”

Before burying her, Lewellyn confessed to removing her clothing and “trying to mess with her,” but he didn’t detail what that meant, Dr. Lacey Willett wrote. The suspect recalled returning to work to eat lunch and checking wells.

After work, he went through his normal routine and “just tried to forget about it.” The following day, he “went to work just like normal,” he said.

Lewellyn, with hopes not to be named a suspect, even went to police to tell officers he was the last to see Sutherland alive. He later confessed to his alleged crimes and provided several statements, Willett wrote.

“I knew I didn’t kill her on purpose,” Lewellyn said.

Willett determined that he was mentally fit to stand trial and understood the judicial process.

“He expressed that he would like to take his case to trial so ‘I can get my story out there to whoever needs to hear it,’” she wrote.

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LITTLE ROCK — The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed that a Mississippi County man’s murder sentence was illegally enhanced.

Markus Gentry, 31, of Blytheville, was convicted of second-degree murder for the January 2019 death of Lewis Gamble. Gamble, 35, of Jonesboro died during surgery after being shot by Gentry during a dispute about a car accident at his northwest Jonesboro barbershop.

Gentry was sentenced to life imprisonment. A firearm enhancement added 10 years to his sentence.

“I knew I was going to jail because I wasn’t supposed to have a gun,” he testified before a jury last February.

Prosecutors wrote in a report that Gentry “possessed or owned a firearm and has been convicted of a violent felony.”

He challenged the enhancement noting that it was added illegally under a provision that says a person found guilty to “a second or subsequent felony involving the use of a firearm shall be sentenced to a minimum of imprisonment of 10 years in the Division of Correction without eligibility of parole or community correction transfer but subject to reduction by meritorious good-time credit.”

The law prosecutors cited to add the enhancement to Gentry’s life sentence was used incorrectly, justices concluded.

“Gentry’s ten-year sentence under section 16-90-121 is illegal. (It) does not authorize a trial court to sentence a defendant to an additional ten years’ imprisonment; rather, it mandates that a defendant serve a minimum of ten years in prison before becoming eligible for parole,” wrote associate judge Robin Wynne in making the determination.