3 candidates in race for prosecutor office

CONWAY — Three people are competing to become the 20th Judicial Circuit’s next prosecuting attorney.

Carol Crews, 36, of Conway; Zach Throneberry, 30, of Conway; and Jim Hensley, 58, of Wooster are vying for the nonpartisan position in Tuesday’s election.

The winner will succeed Luke Ferguson, who was appointed to the position after Cody Hiland resigned to become U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

The 20th Judicial Circuit includes Faulkner, Van Buren and Searcy counties. The prosecutor’s job pays $159,620.20.

Crews is the chief deputy prosecuting attorney for the circuit and has been a prosecutor for 10 years and handles major-crime cases, especially violent crimes and those against children. She also has prosecuted juvenile, property and financial crimes, according to her website.

Throneberry spent the past three years as a deputy prosecutor in the 12th Judicial Circuit, which includes Sebastian County. In that position, he prosecuted drug, property and violent crimes. He is starting a law practice in Conway, his website says.

Hensley has been an attorney almost 19 years. He has practiced “all types of law including family, juvenile, corporate, criminal, and estate planning,” according to his website. He represented former Circuit Judge Michael Maggio during the sentencing phase after Maggio pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge in 2015.