VAN BUREN, Ark. (AP) - Incriminating statements an Arkansas man made to police after his 2001 arrest in a woman’s killing will be inadmissible in his retrial, a judge ruled.
Crawford County Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell said that Rickey Dale Newman was mentally incompetent when he made the statements in March 2001, meaning he could not give a knowing account because of his condition, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (https://bit.ly/2j5cUzm ) reports.
Newman, 59, is charged with first-degree murder in the February 2001 death and mutilation of 46-year-old Marie Cholette at a transient camp near Van Buren.
“The court holding is that, based on Mr. Newman’s condition at the time he made those statements, he suffered a mental disease and mental deficits wherein he could not give a knowing or voluntary consent or statement because of that mental condition,” Cottrell wrote.
Newman’s attorney, Julie Brain, filed the request to suppress his statements in September 2014. She claims detectives took advantage of Newman’s mental condition to get him to confess to Cholette’s slaying, even though Newman told police he doesn’t remember killing her.
The judge said the interrogation that led to Newman making the statements was not reasonable given his mental condition.
Newman’s June 2002 conviction and death sentence in the case were thrown out. He was declared mentally fit to stand trial in November 2015.
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Information from: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, https://www.arkansasonline.com
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