Boy, 14, held in guardians’ Conway deaths
CONWAY — A 14- yearold boy whom a slain Conway couple had been raising was being held on capital- murder charges Thursday, and police opened the door to the possibility of more arrests.
“This is an ongoing investigation, [ and] more arrests could follow,” the Conway Police Department said in a news release.
Authorities declined to release the boy’s name but said he was the “grandson” of the couple, Robert and Patricia Cogdell, who had raised him since at least 2010. The Cogdells were found shot to death outside their home Wednesday afternoon. Both were 66.
The child in custody, Justin Shane Staton, was also the
subject of an intensive police search in August 2013. The boy was just 12 when he was reported as stealing his grandfather’s truck about $ 100 in cash and running away. Police found him the next day and released him to the Cogdells.
In another development, the Faulkner County sheriff’s office arrested the child’s mother, Michelle Staton, 36, of Conway on past offenses Wednesday, including failure to appear in court. She remained jailed Thursday without bail, according to the county’s online jail roster.
Conway police spokesman LaTresha Woodruff said the mother should not be described as a suspect in the killings at this time and that Michelle Staton was not the Cogdells’ daughter.
“At this point, we cannot say she had anything to do with” the killings, Woodruff said.
Woodruff said police quickly found the boy at a Conway- area home after they discovered the couple’s bodies near woods behind a large shed across the driveway from their brick house on Quail Run Circle in west Conway.
Robert Cogdell was Maumelle’s longtime public- works director. When he didn’t show up for work Wednesday, a city official asked police to check the couple’s home.
Detectives now believe the killings took place Tuesday night, that Robert Cogdell was shot inside the house and that his wife was shot in the garage. Both bodies were then moved to the woods, police said.
Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland confirmed Thursday that additional charges in slayings were possible.
“We have authorized the Conway Police Department to pursue this [ case] as though it was an investigation of a crime committed by an adult,” he said.
At 14, a person can be charged as a minor or an adult — a decision that is up to the prosecuting attorney.
In 2012, the U. S. Supreme Court issued a decision prohibiting states from requiring judges or juries to give life sentences without parole to defendants who were children when the crimes were committed.
Hiland said Thursday, though, that he believes he can legally charge a 14- year- old with capital murder if the jury is given the option of sentencing the defendant to 10 to 40 years or life in prison without parole if he is found guilty.
Court records show that Michelle Staton did not show up in Faulkner County Circuit Court in December on drug- and- alcohol- related charges. That case remains open.
The Arkansas DemocratGazette confirmed that Michelle Staton is the suspect’s mother through a review of the child’s guardianship records in Conway County Circuit Court.
Those same records indicate the child’s father is “unknown.”
In February 2010, a judicial
order found that Justin Staton, along with Michelle Staton’s two other children, would be in imminent danger of irreparable harm if they were placed back in her home, according to a March 2010 petition in which the Cogdells sought to be Justin Staton’s temporary guardians.
That petition says the couple’s son, Robert Shane Cogdell, “was believed to be the biological father of Justin Shane Staton until DNA testing through child support was done on [ June 9, 2008] and proved that he was not the biological father of Justin Shane Staton. … Justin Shane Staton still believes and does not know that Shane Cogdell is not his father.”
The petition notes that Justin Staton had known the older Cogdells “all of his life and believes them to be his paternal grandparents.” It adds that “it would be traumatic for the small minor child to be separated from the believed father and [ grandparents] that he has always known and loved.”
The petition said Robert Shane Cogdell also lived at the house on Quail Run Circle. It was unclear Thursday whether he still was living with his parents when they died.
In July 2010, the older Cogdells were granted permanent guardianship of Justin Staton.
According to court records, another of Melissa Staton’s children also was placed in the Cogdells’ temporary custody in early 2010. More current information on that child, who would now be 17, was not immediately available Thursday. Records indicate the third child, who would now be 15, was placed in another home.
Justin Staton’s biological great- grandfather, Eugene Staton of the Toad Suck community near Conway, said in a brief interview Thursday that the boy was still living with the Cogdells.
Eugene Staton said he does not believe the child committed the killings.
“He’s always been a good kid,” he said.
It’s been “several months” since he last saw the child. The Cogdells wouldn’t “let him come over here,” Eugene Staton said.
On April 29, the boy’s biological grandfather, Randall Eugene Staton, submitted a court motion asking that he be named Justin Staton’s “Substitute Guardian.”
According to that petition, “a change of circumstances has occurred.”
“Specifically, the ward has entered his teenage years and has indicated a preference for living with his biological family,” the motion says. “Upon information and belief, the current Guardians, Robert and Pat Cogdell agree it is in the best interest of the ward for Randall Eugene Staton to be appointed substitute guardian.”
The court’s online system shows no record of a decision on that motion. The grandfather did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.