A Russellville man we reported on last week who was involved the January shooting death of 20-year-old Jared Sykes turned himself into authorities today as promised after months of red tape according to booking information from the Yell County Sheriff Office.
Today in Fort Smith brought you exclusive coverage of the scheduled arrest last week in the shooting of Sykes by Russellville businessman Scott Douthit after being provided details of the incident by a number pf sources.
TIFS has been able to piece together the information from that night as follows:
Just after midnight on January 17 of this year, law enforcement officials with both the Yell County Sheriff Office and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commissi0n were called out to the Carden Bottoms area in extreme northeastern Yell County. Sykes and two companion hunters were night scope hunting coyotes with the landowners permission when they were fired upon from an adjacent property several hundred yards away.
Sykes was struck in the hail of gunfire and was later taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Russellville where he was pronounced dead. According to several sources, Scott Douthit of Russellville admitted to the shooting on the night of the accident but was questioned and released at the location of the shooting.
Sykes body was submitted to the Arkansas State Medical Examiner for an official determination of the cause and manner of death., resulting in the elusive final autopsy report.
The investigation was handled by the YCSPO and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The YCSO did not seek the assistance of the Arkansas State Police in the shooting.
Officials reportedly termed the incident a "tragic hunting accident" from the beginning, but held follow-up interviews later in the week. Investigators eventually took the resulting information to 15th Judicial District prosecutor Tom Tatum, who recused himself from the case due to a previous professional and personal relationship with Douthit's father, Russellville attorney Scott Dale Douthit.
During our quest last week to obtain a copy of the affidavit for warrant in the case, which should normally be public record once the warrant has been issued, we were told any release of information would haven to come from special prosecutor, Pulaski County judge Hugh Finkelstein. Finkelstein.
Finklestein is a frequent special prosecutor appointed by Governor Asa Hutchinson and has even served as a Special Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court on occasion for matters.
Despite the younger Douhit's confession to the shooting the night of the incident and the reported existence of an elusive final autopsy report, a warrant for his arrest was finally issued for Manslaughter- Recklessly Causes Death was given to Yell County Circuit Judge Jerry Don Ramey on May 21.
The warrant reportedly went unsigned until June 7 when Ramey finally turned it over to investigators with the Yell County Sheriff Office.
A spokesperson with that department told Today in Fort Smith last week, after we printed a story saying officials were looking for Douthit on the warrant, that the Russellville man was "taking care of his business" through his attorney and would turn himself in on June 14.
The same spokesman said giving suspects the courtesy of turning themselves in was "standard practice" for the department when questioned about the appearance of preferential treatment for Douthit.
Despite the fact that Yell County is listed as one of those that provides Circuit Court records to Arkansas Court Connect and which thousands of criminal and civil listings for the county are archived, no entries exist for Douthit. That includes results from searches for Yell and Pope counties as well as a statewide search.
According to information from River Valley Now, authorities were “working on a bond recommendation with Douthit’s attorney’s.”
