Stuttgart Murder Trial Starts Monday
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
Opening statements are scheduled for today in
the trial of a Stuttgart teenager accused in the slaying of an
Arkansas State University professor.
Barney Smith was visiting his mother in Stuttgart when he was
killed July 20th, 2001. Police arrested Kirk Otis, who was 14 years
old at the time of the slaying. Otis is being tried as an adult but
the judge has barred the death penalty.
Jury selection last week took four days.
Smith was 49 years old. He was a military science professor at
Arkansas State`s Jonesboro campus and a lieutenant colonel in the
Arkansas National Guard.
If convicted, Otis would face life in prison without parole.
