FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) — A Rogers man was sentenced to 28 years in prison for trying to kill his wife with rat poison, according to Benton County Circuit Court documents.
Bob Lee Steward, 46, pleaded guilty July 13 to attempted capital murder, a Class Y felony. Steward also received a 12 year suspended sentence to follow his prison term, according to the documents. He received credit for 292 days served in the Benton County Jail while he waited for his trial.
Steward was arrested in September after officers were called to West Lupine Drive in Rogers around 8:30 a.m. where they met Janet Steward, who told them her husband had put rat poison in her coffee, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Janet Steward told dispatch she heard a gunshot from their bedroom after her husband went into the room saying he was going to kill himself, the affidavit states. When officers arrived they found Bob Steward in the bedroom where he told them he had tried killing himself, but missed, according to the affidavit.
Bob Steward told investigators the couple got into an argument after his wife found out he had been talking to another woman, the affidavit states.
Janet Steward said when she woke up her husband made her coffee while she was in the shower, according to the affidavit. She took a sip of the coffee and thought it tasted bitter, so she poured it out into the sink and noticed a green substance come out of the bottom of the cup, the affidavit states.
When she said she was contacting the police, Bob Steward went into the bedroom and fired off a shot, according to the affidavit.
Officers searched the couple’s home and found a cup with green residue in it, as well as d-CON rat poison pellets under the bathroom sink, the affidavit states.
Bob Steward told investigators he had been thinking about killing Janet for about a year, but this is the first time he tried to follow through with it, according to the affidavit. He said he first tired to mix the pellets in with the creamer, but it was not hot enough to dissolve them, the affidavit states.
Steward also said he could not decide between using pellets or solid rat poison because he wanted her to “suffer a little bit,” but not “a lot” because he feels “like a prisoner” in his own house, according to the affidavit.
