Summary: A ransom plot gone wrong resulted in the death of a real estate agent in Arkansas, and the man responsible will spend life in prison without parole.
Real estate agent Beverly Carter’s family is seeing punishment for her murder in September of 2014. Arkansas man Arron Lewis was convicted of capital murder and kidnapping and sentenced to life in prison without parole suffocating Carter to death.
The jury had little sympathy for Lewis as his defense team made up harmful stories about the events that happened the day she was killed, claiming she died during a consensual sex act gone wrong. Carter was a real estate agent in the Little Rock area who left her home that day to show a house to a prospective buyer.
The prospective buyer was Lewis and his estranged wife Crystal Lowery. The prosecution team claimed that Lewis and Lowery set up the house showing in order to kidnap Carter for ransom money. It is believed that Carter was killed when the plot when wrong, dumping her body in a shallow grave at a concrete plant Lewis had once worked at. Autopsy reports showed she had been suffocated.
Lewis argued that Lowery was responsible for Carter’s death while Lowery claimed in her testimony that her death was not an accident like Lewis said. Lowery plead guilty last year to first-degree murder and kidnapping, receiving 30 years in prison.
Much of the evidence found during the investigation wasn’t allowed to be used during the trial because of several missteps by police. Despite the lack of evidence to use, the prosecution was able to present a stronger case to the jury.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/man-charged-realtor-death-protecting-wife-36314901
Photo courtesy of Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office