Judge sets deadline to prosecute case

Appeal to keep slaying confession by Newman in 2001 killing fails Newman, 60, is charged with first-degree murder in the February 2001 death of Cholette, 46, at a transient camp on the edge of Van Buren.

A special prosecutor has been given 10 days to decide whether to continue the 16-year prosecution of Rickey Dale Newman.

Crawford County Circuit

Judge Gary Cottrell wrote a letter to special prosecutor Ron Fields of Fort Smith on Thursday about continuing Newman’s prosecution after the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday rejected Fields’ appeal of Cottrell’s ruling in January that threw out Newman’s confessions.

Cottrell granted a motion by Newman’s attorney Julie Brain to suppress statements Newman made to Van Buren police from shortly after his arrest in March 2001 to May 2002, in which he confessed to murdering and mutilating transient Marie Cholette.

“The court is holding that, based upon 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 his mental condition,” Cottrell wrote.

Fields said Friday he would have to read and research the court’s decision and the case against Newman before he would be able to respond to Cottrell’s request. He said the Supreme Court’s ruling wouldn’t be final until it issues a mandate, which can take 10 to 15 days.

Brain of Philadelphia declined to comment on the state Supreme Court’s decision Friday.

Newman, 60, is charged with first-degree murder in the February 2001 death of Cholette, 46, at a transient camp on the edge of Van Buren. He was convicted of capital murder and condemned to death after a one-day trial in June 2002 during which he told jurors he killed Cholette and wanted to be executed.

He successfully waived his appeals of his conviction and death sentence and asked to be executed.

Four days before his scheduled July 26, 2005, execution, Newman allowed federal Public Defenders Brain and Bruce Eddy to seek in federal court a stay of execution, after which Newman renewed his appeals.

The Arkansas Supreme Court in January 2014 ruled Newman suffered from mental illnesses and cognitive deficits and threw out his capital murder conviction and death sentence because he couldn’t assist in the preparation of his defense.

The case was sent back to Crawford County Circuit Court to restore Newman to competence and retry him. Cottrell ruled Newman competent in November 2015. Fields amended the charge against Newman from capital murder to first-degree murder in December.

Brain argued in a 2009 petition Newman’s confessions were the only evidence the state had against him.

In the petition, in which she argued Newman was not guilty of Cholette’s murder, she wrote tests showed DNA from semen collected at the murder scene wasn’t Newman’s.

Also, all but two hairs used as evidence in Newman’s 2002 capital murder trial have been lost, Brain stated in the petition. The two remaining hairs were found on a pair of Newman’s gloves recovered from Newman’s sister’s home in Fort Smith.

“Mitochondrial DNA testing conducted on those hairs shows that, contrary to the testimony that the state presented to the jury, they are not the hairs of the decedent,” Brain wrote.

Research psychologist Allison Redlich, an expert in police interviewing and interrogations, concluded Newman’s confessions were false, Brain wrote in the petition. Among other things, Redlich found Newman suffered from a mental illness and intellectual disability, his statements were the only evidence against him, and his desire for the death penalty motivated his confession.

Newman