Questions rise over Sanders’ eligibility to run for governor

LITTLE ROCK — Former Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for the upcoming Arkansas governor’s race, but is she eligible to hold the office?

The Arkansas Constitution sets forth three requirements for anyone who wants to run for governor: Be a U.S. citizen, at least 30 years old and a resident of Arkansas for at least seven years. But that last requirement isn’t as straightforward as it might seem, Central Arkansas attorneys Samual McLelland and James Baxter suggest in a provocative new article for the University of Arkansas School of Law’s “Arkansas Law Notes.”

Does Sanders, who has raised more than $11 million for her gubernatorial bid, even meet residency requirements? The answer to that remains up in the air, McLelland and Baxter conclude.

That last requirement — residency for seven years —is not as settled as it may appear. Seven years immediately prior to taking office? Or can it be seven years from decades ago?

Do the seven years even have to be consecutive? Or is “three years here and four years there” enough?

This article calls for an answer to these questions from the Arkansas Supreme Court which failed to address this important question previously.

The Arkansas Supreme Court addressed the question in 2006 when Bill Halter ran for lieutenant governor, a position with the same requirements as governor. Halter was allowed to run, but the court failed to really nail down what the seven-year requirement really meant.

“So, the question still remains: does the residency requirement mean seven consecutive years immediately preceding the election or any given seven years?” the authors of the paper ask.

Only the Arkansas Supreme Court can tell us, and they’ll only do that if someone brings a suit.

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LITTLE ROCK — Violent crime is on the rise in Arkansas as well as violence against law enforcement, according to officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

That’s why the FBI in Little Rock hosted state and local law enforcement Thursday, Oct. 21, to discuss partnerships and how to combat this violence.

'In the incidence of homicides, in our major metropolitan areas, in some instances, it's higher than the city of Chicago, the number of homicides in the state is certainly disturbing,” said Special Agent James Dawson.

Fayetteville Police say the department saw a 26% increase in violent crime in 2020.

“We’ve seen a little bit of a downtick on that this year so far, but we had 17 shootings in 2020 that resulted in seven homicides in Fayetteville,” Fayetteville Police Chief Mike Reynolds said.

So far in 2021, there have been 12 shootings in Fayetteville that have resulted in two homicides.

Chief Reynolds says two 16-year-old boys have also been murdered in the last 18 months. He says there has also been an increase in violence towards officers.

“I don’t know if folks become radicalized, they become fixated or if they are looking for suicide by cop,' Reynolds said. 'I don’t know what the motive is in this particular situation is, but we are just seeing it occur more and more and it’s evolving and certainly, we have got to find a way to make it stop.' In northwest Arkansas in the last 18 months, two officers have been killed and one seriously injured.

Fort Smith Police say they’ve seen a slight increase in violent crime

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over the last couple of years, averaging about 71 violent crimes a month. In 2020, two officers were hospitalized and two so far this year including an officer who was stabbed in the neck this past weekend.

Aric Mitchell with the Fort Smith Police Department says they are fortunate that they haven’t had a violent crime death of an officer since 2007.

“That in part is due to being vigilant with the community, making the community our partners and not just seeing us in a different light but once you establish those relationships with the community, they tend to feel more comfortable coming to you

with crime concerns,” Mitchell said.

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WARREN — A south Arkansas man has been jailed on a capital murder charge in connection with the death of a man who was found lying along a highway earlier this week.

Arkansas State Police say 44-year-old Tony McCoy of Warren was arrested late Tuesday.

He’s accused in the death of 38-year-old Terry Adams of Warren, whose body was discovered Monday along U.S. 63 about four miles south of Warren.

State police say Adams was shot to death.

McCoy is being held in the Dallas County jail.

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FAYETTEVILLE, — Two people have been arrested in connection to the homicide of a 16-year-old in Fayetteville.

Fayetteville Police Chief Mike Reynolds announced Thursday, Oct. 21, that two people were in custody in connection with a homicide reported on Sept. 10, 2021, at West Pleasant Woods Drive.

On Friday, Sept. 10, around 10:30 p.m., Fayetteville police officers responded to a home on West Pleasant Woods Drive in reference to a shooting.

Once on scene, officers found an unresponsive 16year-old male inside the residence with an apparent gunshot wound. Officers immediately began lifesaving efforts but were unable to save the victim, Chief Reynolds said.

An initial investigation led detectives to determine the shooting was a homicide.

After several weeks of investigating, detectives requested an arrest warrant for 19-year-old Christopher Johnson Jr., of Marianna, for second-degree murder and tampering with evidence.

Another arrest warrant was issued for 18-year-old Paul Whitaker of Marianna for hindering apprehension or prosecution and accomplice to tampering with physical evidence.

On Monday, Oct. 18, detectives from the Fayetteville Police Department, with the assistance of the U.S.

Marshals Service (USMS), Western Arkansas Fugitive Task Force, along with the USMS Eastern Arkansas Fugitive Task Force, and the Marianna Police Department located and arrested Johnson Jr. and Whitaker in Marianna for the above charges.

This investigation is ongoing. The victim’s identity and details surrounding the homicide have not been released at this time.