Parolee pleads guilty to killing woman in 2018
A Wisconsin parolee who killed an 80-year-old Hot Springs woman in 2018 “to obtain her assets” was sentenced to life in prison without parole Wednesday after pleading guilty to capital murder during a brief hearing in Garland County Circuit Court.
Kevin Kay Buerke, 28, who has remained in custody since his arrest Aug. 23, 2018, on a second-degree forgery charge stemming from his trying to get the assets of Betty Slaughter after murdering her, told Judge Marcia Hearnsberger he used a Taser on the victim, then tranquilized her, causing her death and then took the body to a Royal cemetery where he burned it.
Buerke was charged with capital murder on Aug. 26, 2018, and prosecutors had indicated the next day at his arraignment they planned to seek the death penalty in the case.
Buerke “will never get out of prison,” Chief Deputy Prosecutor Kara Petro told The Sentinel-Record shortly after the hearing.
“He will never be able to inflict harm on this community again,” she said.
“We did not make the decision to not go to jury trial lightly. I strongly feel that we would have gotten the death penalty. I spent years speaking with the person closest to Betty Slaughter about what was the best course of action.
“Ultimately, if we would have gone to jury trial, Betty’s loved ones would never have heard the defendant admit what he had done. There is closure in hearing his admission to what happened which is not some
thing that comes from trial,” Petro said.
Buerke’s plea also “ensures that Mrs. Slaughter’s loved ones will not have to deal with decades of appeals. They can take time to grieve and it’s finally over because of this plea,” Petro said.
Buerke, clad in the standard orange detention center jumpsuit with his hands and feet shackled, appeared with his attorney, Tony Brasuell, of the Brasuell Law Firm of Little Rock, and seemed to be crying slightly as he answered questions from Hearnsberger during the plea.
At one point, Hearnsberger asked, “Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” and Buerke answered, “Yes, your honor.”
In briefly describing what happened, Buerke told the court, “On Aug. 21, 2018, I went to Betty Slaughter’s residence. She came outside. I Tased her and then took her back inside and tied her to a chair. I injected her with a tranquilizer and then after she was dead, I drove her to the cemetery. The next day, I went to the bank to obtain her assets.”
Asked if he knew Slaughter, Buerke said, “I knew of her, through my grandparents. She was the landlord of my grandparents.” He said he couldn’t recall the exact nature of the tranquilizer he gave her, but said he knew it would kill her and that it was his intent to kill her at that time. He also admitted to burning the body once at the cemetery.
Buerke also admitted his status as a habitual offender, having been convicted of three prior felonies in Wisconsin, including two counts of residential burglary in 2009, where he was sentenced to four years in prison, and one count of misappropriating identity documents to obtain money orders in 2014, where he was sentenced to 14 months in prison followed by three years of parole.
As part of Wednesday’s plea deal, Petro withdrew the second-degree forgery charge, but also amended the information to indicate Buerke had caused Slaughter’s death “with premeditation and deliberate purpose.”
Garland County sheriff’s investigators had developed Buerke as a suspect early on in the investigation and worked with the Arkansas State Crime Lab and the prosecutor’s office in obtaining enough evidence to file the charge against him on Aug. 26, according to earlier reports.
Friends had reported Slaughter missing from her residence on Aug. 22 and sheriff’s investigators who responded to her house found evidence of foul play. Footage from a neighbor’s surveillance camera indicated a white male in a gold Ford Explorer was at the residence on Aug. 21, the last time Slaughter was heard from.
Investigators located the vehicle and determined Buerke had been in possession of it at the time. They also obtained information Buerke had gone to a local bank on Aug. 22 with paperwork granting him power of attorney for Slaughter which was later determined to be counterfeit, resulting in the forgery charge.
Buerke was arrested the next day when he met with his parole officer and was driving the Ford Explorer at the time. Evidence was found in the Explorer that also linked him to Slaughter’s death, including blood later matched to Slaughter, whose body was found “burned beyond recognition” on Aug. 25 in Lowe Cemetery off Ragweed Valley Road.