True Crime Chronicles: Triple murder in Kensett dominated news coverage across state in 1989
- Dennis McCaslin
- Apr 15
- 2 min read
A quiet apartment in the small town of Kensett in White County became the scene of a horrific triple murder in the fall of 1991,
Johnie Michael Cox, a 42-year-old local man, was convicted of the brutal killings of his step-grandmother, Marie Sullens, 68, and Margaret Brown, 34, and Billy Brown, 32, in a case that gripped White County and raised questions about motive and madness.
Marie Sullens was the mother of Billy Brown and he and his wife just happened to be at the house on the day of the slayings.
On the evening of November 1, 1989, Cox arrived at the apartment where Sullens lived with the Browns. According to court documents, Cox believed Sullens was attempting to harm his grandfather, Jess Sullens, by mismanaging his care and finances.
Armed with a .22 pistol, Cox entered the apartment with a chilling plan. He forced Billy Brown to bind Sullens and Margaret with electrical cords and duct tape before tying Billy himself. The three victims were then bound together at the neck.
What followed was a gruesome attempt to kill all three. Cox stabbed them repeatedly, though the knife was later described as too dull to inflict fatal wounds. He also tried to strangle them with cords.
When these efforts failed, Cox set the apartment ablaze, leaving the victims to perish in the fire. The medical examiner later determined that Margaret Brown died from a combination of stab wounds and strangulation before the flames consumed the scene. Sullens and Billy Brown also succumbed to the attack and fire.
Cox fled the scene but was arrested a month later on December 5, 1989, initially on unrelated charges of robbery and attempted capital murder in North Little Rock.
During questioning at the White County jail, Cox confessed to the killings, claiming he chose November 1--All Saints’ Day--because he believed it would ensure the victims’ passage to heaven.
He also alleged that Sullens had been stealing his grandfather’s Social Security checks and serving him spoiled food, though no evidence substantiated these claims.
The trial, held in May 1990, captivated the region. Cox’s defense attorney, Paul Petty, attempted to suppress the videotaped confession, arguing it was coerced, but the motion was denied.
The prosecution painted Cox as a calculated killer whose actions were premeditated and merciless.
The jury agreed, convicting him of capital murder and sentencing him to death by lethal injection.
Cox’s appeals, which argued that Arkansas’s capital murder statute was unconstitutional and that media coverage of recent executions prejudiced the jury, were rejected by the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1993.
After years of legal battles, Cox was executed on February 16, 1999, at the Cummins Unit in Varner, Arkansas. When asked for a final statement, he said only, “I’m anxious. Please release me and let me go.”
He was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m., ten minutes after the lethal injection began.
