Hot Springs man pleads innocent in slaying of 3 friends
HOT SPRINGS — A Hot Springs man accused of killing three friends earlier this week pleaded innocent to three counts of capital murder Friday morning during a video arraignment in Garland County District Court.
Nicholas Matthew Lewondowski, 34, who was on parole at the time of the killings, appeared by video before Judge Ralph Ohm from the Garland County jail, where Lewondowski is being held without bail. Each of the charges is punishable by death or life in prison without parole.
Police did not release the names, sexes or causes of death of the three people Friday pending notification of their next of kin. The bodies were sent to the state Crime Laboratory for positive identification.
Chief deputy prosecutor Joe Graham filed a motion Friday to limit pretrial publicity in the case, including social media, and Ohm granted a gag order.
Mark Frasier, Lewondowski’s court-appointed attorney, filed a motion asking that a drug test — with Lewondowski’s consent — be conducted on his client immediately after the arraignment. The results are to be forwarded to Fraiser, Graham and Ohm’s court clerk.
A felony review hearing is set for Jan. 22 in District Court to determine whether the charges will be bound over to Garland County Circuit Court. Ohm ordered that Lewondowski, who also has a parole office hold on him, will remain in custody without bail.
The three bodies were found about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in a residence at 208 Nevada St., where police had gone to conduct a welfare check after a witness reported that Lewondowski had taken him there earlier, according to the affidavit for Lewondowski’s arrest.
Lewondowski asked the witness for help disposing of the bodies and then nailed the doors shut at the residence, telling the witness that he “would just burn the residence down,” according to the affidavit.
Lewondowski, who lists a Carl Drive address, was taken into custody without incident around 7 a.m. Wednesday at a residence at 347 Little Mazarn Road, police said in a news release.
The witness told police that Lewondowski and three of his friends had visited the witness’s residence Monday, according to the affidavit. At one point, Lewondowski and the three others got into an argument about one member of the group stealing from another member, the witness said in the affidavit.
The witness told police that Lewondowski became agitated with all three of them. Then Lewondowski and the three others got into a vehicle and drove to what the witness believed was one friend’s residence on Nevada Street. Lewondowski later told the witness that he had killed the three friends and needed the witness’s help, according to the affidavit.
Lewondowski asked the witness to help move the victims’ vehicles to different locations, the affidavit said. He then said he would contact the witness in a day or so for help disposing of the bodies, according to the affidavit. After their conversation, the witness called police.
Police went to the Nevada Street residence and found the rear door open and the three bodies inside surrounded by pools of blood, according to the affidavit.
Lewondowski has a criminal history that dates back more than 15 years. He has more than 14 previous felony convictions, including one for second-degree battery in 2003. He was charged with first-degree battery Aug. 27, 2016, regarding an attack on a fellow inmate at the jail, but the charge was later withdrawn for further investigation.