SEBASTIAN COUNTY (KFSM)- A Sebastian County jury passed on charging Gregory Kinsey with capital murder after he hacked two men to death with a machete. Instead, they convicted him of first-degree and second-degree murder and gave him a total of 70 years in prison.
A Sebastian County jury hasn't sentenced anyone to death on capital murder since Thomas Springs, who was convicted and sentenced.
On Jan. 21, 2005, Springs rammed into his wife Christina Springs with his car at the intersection of North Greenwood Avenue and Rogers Avenue in Fort Smith. He then stabbed her to death as she sat in her car in rush hour gridlock.
A jury found Springs guilty of capital murder and sentenced him to death. Springs is currently on death row.
A Sebastian County jury also convicted James Miller after he killed his girlfriend, Bridgette Barr, and her two children, Sydney and Garret, around Christmas in 2006 in his Fort Smith apartment.
According to autopsy results Bridgette was strangled, Sydney was stabbed in the neck and Garrett was smothered. The autopsy reports also shows garret's body was put in an oven.
A jury found Miller guilty of capital murder and sentenced him to death.
However, reports show Miller's death sentence was thrown out by the Arkansas Supreme Court and he was re-sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2011.