Arkansas Blog

Wow. You gotta be a bad hombre for your own mother to turn you in.

Or a good mother.

Good policework as well. This guy should get the book thrown at him.

The only thing that came out of that senseless act was hurt to two families, the Garisons and the Evans.

Kudos to the mother who had the intestinal fortitude to make the call to the police about the acts of her own son. That took chutzpah!

It really amazes me how, in a huge world full of people, they can so often find criminals this way.

We had a guy wanted here in Randolph County for drug charges, assault, etc. Recently he was caught in Argentina! I've also seen many cases of people wanted in places like Chicago being caught someplace like a little town in Oregon a week after they disappeared from Chicago.

The police "system" is really amazing sometimes. And, unfortunately, sometimes not. But it sure appears to have worked this time!

How does this happen and we still can't find Osama? Nominate the mother for Mother of the Year. Bad is bad, Evil is evil.

Now, let's see if the mother takes the reward money.

And if she does, so what? She removed a dangerous, cold-blooded killer from the streets. I hope and pray that I am never in the position of realizing that my child is a murderer and then making the decision to turn to him in.

She should give that money to the Garison family. No way should anyone make money off their child killing someone.

Jake, you are right, as you so often are. Any reward money should go to the victim's family.

I have a quaint suggestion:
Let's wait until this fellow gets a fair trial before we pontificate upon what should happen to him.

About that reward money...why was a reward posted? Wasn't it posted to encourage or induce somebody (a disinterested witness, a friend, a lover, a relative, ANYBODY) to drop a dime on a murderer? Does it matter whether the caller's motivation is to get the reward, or to do the right thing, or out of fear (of or for the perp), or revenge, or whatever? The reward was offered to anyone with a tip leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer.

Why nothing about the Dem-Gaz's article slapping the AT for publishing details of the arrest warrant? And the Dem-Gaz's quoting of the AT to accomplish the same thing?

ARK. BLOG: Sparky, you are a bright reader. Apparently the D-G called my office last night, but not my home, where I spent the evening, for comment. My thoughts would have been to say something like this:

"Are you suggesting we've done some damage to this case by posting for about 15 minutes an affidavit on a website read, in the course of 24 hours, by 8,000 to 10,000 people? If you are, tell me how republishing those facts, based on our posting, to a permanent paper edition with a readership of 300,000 or so is somehow defensible?"

For questions as to our source and the fact that it was on the website briefly but then was not, I would have said:

"Like I am sure Griffin Smith or Frank Fellone would say, it's not our practice to comment to competitors about confidential sources or internal editing decisions."

It may appear crass and insensitive, but I do not really care what happens to Evans. He deserves whatever the law permits in such a heartless, depraved killing. Evans was not concerned about Garison, so why should he be protected from the sting of his deliberate choice? It is time to hold all people to account and not provide an avenue of escape for those who commit horrific crimes.

I know Grover. He is a polite, well-mannered kid who was working for a state agency as a computer fixer.

I also know his mom.

This is hard to believe. They are not like what you are thinking.

ARK. BLOG: I am thinking it's an unimaginable tragedy for two families.

Tarr:

I understand what you are saying about him being outwardly polite and well-mannered. However, folks with those attributes who murder a man in the cold-blooded commission of a robbery are neither polite nor well-mannered on the inside.

There is bound to be some underlying issue.

I feel for both families, too. It's sickening.

Great observation, Hugh Mann. Psychopaths are charming and polite, respectful and humorous, and profoundly dangerous. Evans has some serious issues which propelled him to act out this kind of insane aggression. To murder someone and then bid them "Merry Christmas" is not the trait of a person who is genuinely polite and well-mannered; no, it is the sign of a pretender.

Max,
My thoughts exactly.

I thought that A-G article was having cake and scarfing it too in the worst of ways. Take a couple of slaps at a competitor by name and then provide your readers with the same info blog readers got half a day earlier.

It made me chuckle a bit.