Court: No new trial for Green

Conflicting theories advanced in separate prosecutions in Randolph County of Charles “Chad” Wayne Green and his father, Billy Dale Green, in the 1998 slayings of four members of a Dalton family do not warrant a new trial for the younger Green, the Arkansas Supreme Court decided Thursday.

Chad Green, now 37, was convicted last fall on four counts of capital murder and one count of kidnapping, for which he was sentenced to life without parole plus 40 years in prison.

Billy Dale Green, is also serving four life sentences for the murders and 40 years for the kidnapping.

The men, both from Warm Springs, were jointly charged in 2003 with four counts of capital murder and one count of kidnapping in the deaths of Carl Elliott, 30, Lisa Elliott, 27, and their two children, Gregory, 6, and Felicia, 8. The family members, who lived in the northern Randolph County town of Dalton, were slain on July 29, 1998.

Prosecutors have said the killings were retaliation for Carl Elliott taking marijuana plants from Billy Green, although one witness has testified that the crimes were meant to cover up the sexual assault of the 8-year-old girl.

Shortly after the charges were filed, Chad Green

negotiated guilty pleas to reduced charges, including one count of first-degree murder and one count of kidnapping, and pleaded “no contest” to separate rape charges, agreeing to testify against his father at trial.

With Chad Green’s cooperation, his father was then convicted on all charges and sentenced to death. But in 2006, the Supreme Court reversed Billy Dale Green’s convictions and ordered a new trial, saying the trial judge had impermissibly allowed prosecutors to present evidence about Billy Green’s reputation and other bad acts.

In preparation for the father’s retrial, which occurred earlier this year, prosecutors tried to interview Chad Green again, but this time he refused to cooperate, prompting the state to vacate his earlier agreement and sentence, and reinstate the original charges against him — a move that the Supreme Court upheld.

Chad Green was tried in September 2011 and was convicted of four counts of capital murder and one count of kidnapping, for which he is serving the four life sentences plus 40 years.

Billy Dale Green, 56, was then re-tried in May of this year and again was found guilty on all charges. Spared the death penalty this time, he is now also serving four life sentences plus 40 years.

In their trials, each man pointed the finger at the other, even though Chad Green had sought before his trial to prevent prosecutors from arguing “contradictory theories of the case,” or anything different from what they had advanced in Billy Green’s first trial.

The circuit court denied the motion.

“Chad claims that in Billy’s trial, the state argued that Billy had been the ‘primary actor,’ while Chad was actually a ‘peripheral character’ who acted out of fear of Billy. But in his trial, Chad claims, the state argued that he had been ‘equally involved’ in the crimes,” according to the Supreme Court opinion.

The state argued that Chad Green’s reliance on a federal case decided in 2000, which held that a due-process violation occurs when the state uses contradictory theories to secure convictions against two or more defendants for the same offense, did not apply. The federal case addressed two different theories argued by the state, but in this case, the state had only one theory — the one argued in Chad Green’s case, the state argued.

Assistant Attorney General Jake H. Jones argued that the theory advanced in the father’s 2004 trial didn’t count because that trial had been reversed.

The Supreme Court agreed, saying that when Billy Green’s conviction and death sentence was thrown out, “we returned the parties to the same situation as that in which they were before trial. For the purposes of this appeal, the state’s theory in Billy’s case no longer existed,” making Chad Green’s motion moot.

Chad Green’s second point on appeal, argued by attorney Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock, challenged the denial of his motion to suppress two statements he made to police in 1998. It was also rejected by the Supreme Court, which found “no reversible error” in a review of the trial record.

The brutality of the slayings shocked the tiny town in northern Randolph County where the slain family lived.

Carl Elliott was shot twice in the head, then thrown into the Eleven Point River near his home.

Lisa Elliott was bludgeoned with a tire tool 27 times and her throat was slit.

Gregory was hit at least nine times with the tire tool and stabbed in the throat three times with the tool’s pointed end.

Hunters found Felicia’s remains two years after the slayings in a dry creek bed near Billy Green’s home.

Earlier this year, Billy Green’s trial attorney pledged to appeal his latest conviction as well.