Second suspect in beating homicide pleads guilty
The second of three suspects charged in connection with the 2012 death of a Malvern man at a Hot Springs motel pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to a reduced charge of manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Felicia Lattice Murray, 28, aka “Fifi,” was originally charged with first- degree murder for the Aug. 22, 2012, death of James Richard Cranford, 57, who was reportedly beaten with a baseball bat during a robbery while staying at the El Rancho Motel, 1611 Central Ave., and later died from a heart attack caused by the beating.
Murray was set to stand trial Wednesday on the original charge, but in a last- minute deal agreed to plead guilty in Garland County Circuit Court to the amended charge of manslaughter and accept the maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, Deputy Prosecutor Joe Graham said.
Murray’s husband, David Lee Felty, 45, who prosecutors maintained was the one who actually beat Cranford, was convicted of first- degree murder April 14 after a two- day trial and sentenced to life in prison. A third accomplice, Elbert Osborne Jr., 48, who is also charged with first- degree murder, is set for trial Sept. 22.
Graham said Murray had planned to present the affirmative defense that she didn’t know Felty intended to rob Cranford or harm him and that she had only helped them get in the door of the victim’s room that night.
“She said she had no knowledge
there was going to be a robbery or anything,” he said, but the victim’s empty wallet and car keys were later found in the room shared by Murray and Felty, who had just got married the day before.
At Felty’s trial, Graham had explained that Cranford had won “quite a bit of money” at Oaklawn Park earlier in the day on Aug. 21 and rented a room at the El Rancho in order to party with a prostitute friend of his, Christina Dunford, who recruited another prostitute, Melinda Bradbury, to join them.
Graham said Cranford had given money to Dunford to buy crack cocaine for herself to use while he reportedly began shooting up with methamphetamine. At some point, Murray, Osborne and Felty, who was armed with a baseball bat, forced their way into Cranford’s room to rob him and Felty attacked him with the bat and stomped him in the face.
Graham said the victim’s death was ruled a homicide because the beating had caused him to have a heart attack, but he noted there was evidence the victim had a high level of meth in his system.
Dr. Steven A. Erickson, the deputy chief medical examiner, had testified at Felty’s trial that Cranford had a variety of injuries to his head, face, torso and arms that were the result of blunt force trauma, including multiple abrasions or scrapes, contusions or bruises and some lacerations or cuts.
Some of the injuries left a distinct pattern on the victim’s skin consistent with a shoe print which was later matched to the tennis shoes worn by Felty. The victim sustained two fractured ribs and a collapsed lung which would have made it difficult and painful to breath and would have contributed to him having a heart attack, Erickson said.