Records sealed in boy’s murder case

15-year-old accused of killing sister

OZARK — The judge in a Franklin County murder case involving a 15-year-old defendant charged as an adult has issued orders prohibiting officials from commenting on the case and sealing the case file and other documents connected with the case.

Franklin County Circuit Judge William Pearson signed a protective order, commonly known as a “gag order,” on Jan. 25 in the firstdegree murder case of Colton Harvey, who is accused of shooting his 16-year-old sister Candace at their home Jan. 15.

Authorities have said the boy told a Franklin County sheriff’s dispatcher he shot his sister to death but gave no explanation. The children’s parents were not home and authorities found Candace Harvey dead of an unknown number of gunshot wounds in a bedroom, Sheriff Anthony Boen said at the time.

Colton Harvey’s case was listed on the court docket Thursday and Pearson called his name, then said that an order had been entered in the case and he wouldn’t take any more action on it.

Pearson filed an order Feb. 23 sealing the case file, anticipating that Harvey’s attorney from the Arkansas

Public Defender Commission would file a petition to transfer the case to juvenile court.

“Even though the defendant has been charged by the state of Arkansas as an adult, there remains to be conducted a transfer hearing in accordance with [Arkansas Code Annotated] Section 9-27-323 with the outcome and ultimate ruling on this issue uncertain at this time,” Pearson wrote in the sealing order.

Pearson wrote in the order that allowing public access to the records in the case would defeat the purpose of confidentiality if Harvey’s case were transferred to juvenile court.

The gag order bars public comments or Internet postings by the parties in the case, their attorneys, the attorneys’ employees, agents and consultants, witnesses named in discovery and officers of the court. That includes law enforcement agencies, the order states.

Prosecutor David Gibbons declined to comment, citing the gag order.

Pearson said Jan. 25 he planned to file the protective order sealing all the documents in the case after the Arkansas Democrat-gazette requested copies of a search warrant and affidavit that had been executed in the case and filed in the circuit clerk’s office.

Circuit Clerk Wilma Brushwood declined to release the documents even though the record wasn’t sealed.

“I’m not to let anything out until I get further instructions from the judge,” Brushwood said Jan. 25.