Last suspect pleads guilty in murder of local man
The last of three suspects charged in connection with the 2013 stabbing death of a 71- year- old Jessieville man was sentenced to 40 years in prison Monday after pleading guilty in Garland County Circuit Court.
Chestly Wayne Gaston Jr., who turns 23 next week, was set to stand trial
beginning today on a charge of first- degree murder for the July 9, 2013, death of Dan Roberson, and could have faced 10 to 40 years or life in prison.
One accomplice, Ethan Patrick Sallee, 20, was convicted of the same charge on Jan. 21 this year after a two- day trial in circuit court and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The second accomplice, Robert William Glover Jr., 18, pleaded guilty to the charge one week later, on Jan. 28, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. All three suspects were from Jessieville.
“It’s kind of hard sometimes in these scenarios to know what a jury will do,” Deputy Prosecutor Joe Graham said Monday, noting that the earlier jury gave Sallee 30 years, which “was a good indicator what they might do.”
He also noted that Gaston would have to serve at least 70 percent of his sentence or 28 years before he was eligible for parole because of the violent nature of the offense.
He said the evidence presented would have shown Gaston was involved in the robbery of Roberson which resulted in his death “but there was some doubt as to who actually killed him.”
Glover had agreed to testify against Gaston as part of his plea deal, but Sallee is still in the process of appealing his case so couldn’t have been compelled to testify.
Graham said Gaston had given a statement indicating they had planned to rob Roberson, but Gaston knew the victim because he had been his neighbor. “He had basically known him his entire life,” he said, and that Gaston had claimed that while he agreed to rob Roberson he told the others he “couldn’t put his hands on him.”
Gaston claimed he had distracted the victim, but it was one of the other two who strangled him. Then they put him in the back of the victim’s pickup and began driving and when the victim appeared to be waking up again, Gaston said it was Glover who stabbed him.
Graham noted that Sallee and Glover had given similar statements about planning the robbery, but both of them had indicated it was Gaston who had strangled and then stabbed the victim.
Graham said the defense had intended to present testimony from another inmate who had been incarcerated with Glover who reportedly heard Glover brag that he had stabbed the victim.
The jury “wouldn’t know for sure who killed him, which doesn’t matter for the charge, but could have affected their decision what to do with him,” Graham said, noting that “this was a very heinous act” but the previous jury had still felt compelled to give Sallee 30 years because “they weren’t convinced he was the one who killed him.”
Graham said he talked with Roberson’s family and they had decided to make the offer of 40 years, but “were adamant he not get anything less than that” and Gaston had agreed to it. “He could have got less if we went to trial,” he said.
Gaston has remained in custody in lieu of $ 250,000 bond since his arrest July 16, 2013, and will be given credit for time served since then, Graham said. Sallee and Glover have also remained in custody since their arrests on July 13, 2013.
Valerie Abernathy, Roberson’s niece, had said after Glover’s plea hearing that Gaston lived four or five houses down from her uncle. “He was a neighborhood kid. My uncle probably took him fishing. That’s what hurts so bad.”
She and other family members had previously said the heartbreaking thing was that Roberson “would have given them money if they had just asked him.”
According to previous reports, Roberson was reported missing July 9, 2013, by his family and after an extensive search his body was found July 13 beside a remote road in northern Garland County. That same day, Glover, then 17, and Sallee, then 18, were each charged with capital murder in connection with his death. Gaston was arrested three days later in Texas, but it was several months before he was extradited back to Hot Springs.
Glover and Sallee were questioned and stated that on July 9 the three had followed Roberson home to his residence on Blakely Camp Road where Gaston strangled Roberson and loaded him into the bed of the victim’s pickup.
Gaston and Sallee took the pickup to a wooded area off Main Haul Road as Glover followed in a car the three of them had stolen the previous night on Fox Pass Road. They stated they abandoned the stolen car there and the three of them then drove Roberson’s pickup to another wooded area where Gaston stabbed Roberson. They then drove to another wooded area and dumped Roberson’s body on the edge of an old logging road.
They stated the two of them returned to Glover’s residence and removed the toolbox from Roberson’s pickup. They then visited several businesses around Hot Springs spending money Gaston took from the victim’s pocket.
The suspects then fled to Texas with Gaston in Roberson’s pickup, and Gaston later abandoned them with instructions to return the vehicle to Arkansas. The two admitted to returning to Arkansas in Roberson’s vehicle and dumping it and burning it in on Highway 67, south of Gurdon, in Clark County.