Monticello Live

The Supreme Court of Arkansas denied a petition from a Drew County man convicted of capital murder and agravated robbery to reinvest jurisdiction in the trial court to consider a petition for writ of error Coram Nobis, last week.

The document states that Robert Hoover “seeks relief from a judgment reflecting two life sentences for his convictions of capital murder in the death of James Wesley Masters and aggravated robbery.”

Robert Hoover, and his then-girlfriend Amanda Helton, constructed a plan to kill Masters in order to rob him and use the money to travel to Florida. Hoover stabbed Masters several times in the back with a hunting knife, in the hands as Masters tried to protect himself, and in a final attempt to kill him, Hoover used the knife to slit Masters’ throat. Robert Hoover stood trial for the murder in March of 2002.

The Supreme Court of Arkansas stated that, “To warrant a writ of error coram nobis, a petitioner has the burden of bringing forth some fact, extrinsic to the record, that was not known at the time of trial.”

The document went on to explain that Hoover had claimed that facts were withheld from the case concerning a deal struck with the prosecution by Amanda Helton, who was also involved in the crime. The Court ruled that these facts would not have provided evidence that would have impacted the verdict of the trial. Hoover apparently agreed with this finding, so his complaint was that since Helton was offered a lesser sentence, he should have been as well.

The Court decided that: “Petitioner, however, offers no authority or persuasive argument to support his position that the prosecution was required under those circumstances to offer him any plea agreement.”

The Courts ruling states: “Petitioner states no valid basis for the writ, and we deny the petition.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 5th, 2012 at 7:25 am and is filed under Site. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.