Mountain View man charged in 4 Stone County slayings

A Mountain View man was charged Thursday in the April shooting deaths of four people in Stone County, two of whom were his parents, authorities say.

Donnie Trammell, 54, faces four first-degree murder charges related to the killings, which local authorities and Arkansas State Police investigated April 21.

At around 2 p.m. that day, 77-year-old Shirley Watters and her son James Watters, 55, were found dead in their 646 Northcutt Road home by a family member, state police said.

About eight hours later, agents were called to another crime scene at 5474 Arkansas 5. William Clinton Trammell, 75, and his wife, Sharon, 72, were discovered dead inside their home from apparent gunshot wounds, state police said.

Donnie Trammell is the son of William and Sharon Trammell, Chief Deputy Dammon McGilton of the Stone County sheriff’s office said in a news conference Thursday. The relationship to the Watters family was unclear, and McGilton said no further information would be released.

The two houses are about a quarter-mile apart.

Donnie Trammell has been in the Stone County jail since April 22, McGilton said, the day after the killings, on unrelated probation charges. He appeared Friday afternoon on the jail’s online inmate roster, with bail set at $4 million.

McGilton thanked other agencies, like the Arkansas State Police, that helped the county investigate the murders.

“Our communities took a lick on this,” McGilton said.

Trammell also faces charges of possession of a firearm by a certain person, theft of a firearm, two counts of aggravated residential burglary and possession of moonshine.