Police: 1 dead after fight inside car.

Suspect hospitalized, charged with 2nd-degree murder

One man is dead and the man accused of killing him is in the hospital after an altercation Friday night inside a car in Garland County, police said.

Shea O’Neill, 40, told Garland County sheriff’s deputies that he had been invited into the front passenger’s seat of a car that was traveling on Amity Road. He said he was struck several times in the back of the head by two people in the back seat who he didn’t know were there.

O’Neill told police he tried to defend himself with a gun, which was taken from him. He said he then pulled out a knife and lunged at one of the people in the back seat, cutting one of them.

O’Neill said he then ended up on the side of the road, where he called for help. Police said deputies found O’Neill bloody and “beaten about the head area.”

The other occupants of the car told a different story. They told deputies that O’Neill had been arguing with one of the men and then lunged and stabbed him in the neck.

About the same time deputies found O’Neill, the other people in the car arrived at Mercy Hospital Hot Springs, where 23-year-old Eston Houge died from a stab wound in the right side of his neck.

“Statements from O’Neill were inconsistent with the statements of the others and the information gained during the investigation,” according to the sheriff’s office.

Deputies consulted with Garland County Prosecutor Steve Oliver before arresting O’Neill and charging him with second-degree murder.

Police said O’Neill’s condition is unknown.