State agrees to nolle prosequi Pulliam’s additional charges

A Heth man convicted last month of second-degree murder will not be tried for allegedly taking advantage of an elderly woman whose family claims he stole from her while he was free on bond for murder.

In April, the family alleged Travis Pulliam, 48, convinced the woman, who worked for him as a bookkeeper for several years, to loan him $20,000 on two separate occasions and to purchase two vehicles for him, one of which he traded for another. Family members told police the woman suffers from memory problems.

Pulliam was charged with two counts of abuse of an endangered or impaired person. At the time of his arrest, a judge ordered Pulliam to be held on a $1 million bond, but about a week later the bond was reduced to $250,000, which Pulliam posted. He remained free on bond until his September murder trial.

St. Francis County Circuit Court records show an attorney for Pulliam reached an agreement with prosecutors earlier this month to nolle prosequi the charges levied by the woman’s family. In exchange, according to the court documents, Pulliam agreed to not appeal the murder conviction.

Pulliam was convicted on Sept. 15 of second-degree murder for the death of Donald Dishon, 52. The two men were involved in a property dispute that resulted in Pulliam killing Dishon during a shootout in Heth in September 2018.

Pulliam was originally charged with capital murder in Dishon’s death, but prosecutors reduced that charge to firstdegree murder before the trial began. He was convicted of the lesser charge of second-degree murder.

After being sentenced to six years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections, Pulliam was turned over to the St. Francis County Jail to await bed space in the state prison system.

(Continued from Page 1) However, St. Francis County Sheriff Bobby May made the decision recently to release Pulliam from custody for “street time” before he begins his sentence in the ADC.