True Crime Chronicles: A married couple and an accomplice killed a Yell County man over drugs and debt
- Dennis McCaslin
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
In the rural stretches of Yell County, near the small community of Centerville, a discarded refrigerator sat among old appliances and debris on a quiet property along Dusty Lane. On June 4, 2020, that ordinary piece of junk became the grim center of a homicide investigation when Jeremy Johnston led authorities to it.
Inside, officers found the body of 66-year-old Steven Burchett of Pottsville. The discovery marked the end of a brutal killing that had unfolded the day before and the beginning of a case that would draw in three people from the local undercurrent of debt, drugs, and simmering resentment.
Burchett was a man who moved through the informal networks of the River Valley. He owned a Yukon SUV and kept a camper in Harkey’s Valley. He had previously bonded David Shaun White out of jail, creating a financial obligation that lingered.
On June 3, 2020, that debt brought the two men together again. White’s wife at the time, Jesse Lou Kendrick, also owed Burchett money. Accompanied by Jeremy Johnston, Burchett drove to pick up White and Kendrick from a residence off Highway 154.
The stated plan was straightforward: collect what was owed and stop in Dardanelle so Kendrick could retrieve her Social Security card and settle the matter.
The four ended up in Burchett’s vehicle. Burchett drove. Johnston sat in the front passenger seat. Kendrick rode behind Johnston. White sat behind Burchett. White directed them down a side road to a property connected to an acquaintance named Mike Baker, claiming he needed to check a mailbox for a stimulus check.
Johnston stepped out to look. In that moment the atmosphere inside the Yukon shifted.
White reached over the driver’s seat, seized Burchett in a chokehold, and dragged him into the back. The vehicle began to roll. Johnston tried to put it in park and was cut by Kendrick, who was holding a knife. She then shifted the transmission herself, stepped out with both a knife and a gun, and declared that everything was under control.
White pinned the older man and stabbed him repeatedly. Witnesses later recounted the words that came with the blows: declarations that Burchett was dying, that he was a dead old man, and that this was what happened when someone talked down to White’s wife.
burchett suffered multiple sharp-force injuries, including deep stab wounds to the neck and chest. The medical examiner determined that the combination of cuts and stabs caused death through blood loss, asphyxia, or both.
After the killing, White took Burchett’s wallet, which held about one hundred dollars. He attempted to wrap the body in a tent but abandoned the effort. With Johnston’s reluctant help, the body was dragged roughly seventy-five yards to the discarded refrigerator. White forced it inside and slammed the door shut.
e three then left in Burchett’s vehicle, Kendrick behind the wheel. What followed was a meandering series of stops across the region. They disposed of items in a river, cleaned blood from the vehicle, obtained drugs, changed clothes, and continued moving. Johnston eventually separated from the group, contacted his grandmother, and then reported what he had seen to law enforcement.
Authorities recovered the body the next day. White was found hiding in the woods near his in-laws’ property. Kendrick was also taken into custody. All three were charged with first-degree murder. Bonds were set high. The cases proceeded separately. In January 2022 a Yell County jury convicted David Shaun White of first-degree murder.
He received a life sentence as a habitual offender. The Arkansas Supreme Court later affirmed the conviction. Jeremy Johnston cooperated with investigators, led them to the body and the knife, and testified. Reports indicate he ultimately entered a plea to a reduced charge.
Jesse Lou Kendrick was sentenced on April 18, 2022, to twenty years for first-degree murder. She entered the Arkansas Division of Correction under ADC number 718981 and remains housed at the McPherson Unit.
The case left little room for ambiguity about the central act. A debt collection ride turned into a roadside killing. A man’s body was stuffed into a refrigerator on a rural property. Three people shared the vehicle that day, and the legal system sorted their differing levels of participation into distinct outcomes.
In the quiet hills of Yell County, the refrigerator is long gone, but the record of what happened inside Burchett’s Yukon on June 3, 2020, remains fixed in court files and prison records.
