Life sentence reduced to 40 years in Boone County murder

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     A man convicted nearly 20 years ago in a Boone County murder was given a reduced sentence this week. Benjamin MacFarland, originally sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, was resentenced to 40 years in prison during Friday’s session in the Boone County Courthouse, and he’ll be eligible for parole in 28 years.

     According to the Harrison Daily Times, the 37-year-old MacFarland was 17 when 15-year-old John Melbourne, Jr., was killed on August 19th, 1996. MacFarland’s conviction led to his life sentence, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile defendant to life without parole.

     After his arrest, MacFarland indicated in his statement to police Melbourne was beaten in a house on North Spring Street in Harrison, sprayed with Lysol, burned with a candle and burned with lit cigarette butts which he was later forced to swallow. Melbourne was then loaded into a vehicle and taken to an abandoned house near Omaha where he was forced to march nude into a wooded area and strangled to death.

     During the trial, testimony was given indicating the incident began as a beating because MacFarland’s co-defendants, Jason McGehee and Chris Epps, believed Melbourne “snitched” on McGehee in a hot check scheme for which Melbourne was arrested the day of his death. McGehee and Epps, both currently at the age of 40, were also convicted of capital murder and kidnapping. McGehee was sentenced to be executed by lethal injection, and Epps received life without parole plus 40 years.

     MacFarland’s case was one of nearly 60 in Arkansas in which a convict had to be resentenced due to his age and the only one in the 14th Judicial Circuit.




   

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