Ronald K. Watson of Flippin sent a minor shock wave through the court room during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday when he announced he was dropping his effort to obtain post conviction relief.
In May, Watson was sentenced to 26 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of rape, kidnapping and third-degree battery stemming from an incident in which a woman was abducted from the parking lot of the midtown Harp's location, assaulted and raped in late July last year.
He had filed a Rule 37 petition seeking post conviction relief not long after being sent to prison. As with most of the peitions, Watson claimed ineffective representation by his attorney and also alleged speedy trial violations. He represented himself in the intitial filing but had asked the court to apoint a lawyer for him.
In his petition, Watson basically laid the blame for his not making what he termed a "timely first appearance" on the entire legal system of Baxter County and alleged he was denied his constitutional right to a speedy trial.
As Judge Gordon Webb prepared to hear Watson's arguments on behalf of his Rule 37 petition, he asked if Watson was prepared to proceed and Watson answered "no sir". A somehwat surprised Judge Webb asked Watson if he was asking to withdraw his motion for post conviction relief and Watson replied he was. Webb asked if there was any particular reason for his taking the action and Watson said "I just don't feel like coming back up here".
Judge Webb then granted the motion to dismiss the Rule 37 Petition and Watson left the courtroom to return to prison.
The entire appearance took approximately ten minutes.
The state had filed an answer to Watson's petition refuting Watson's claims and asking the court to dismiss the petition on its face and without a hearing.
The case in which Watson was charged began when a husband and wife, who reported they were mentally challenged and did not drive, were walking along U.S. Highway 62/412 when a man later identified as the 62-year-old Watson, who was driving a green extended cab Chevrolet pickup truck, offered them a ride. The couple accepted the ride telling Watson they needed to stop by the Big Lots store and also needed to buy groceries at Harp's. The wife went into the Big Lots store, leaving the husband waiting in the truck with Watson.
When the wife returned to to the truck, the trio drove to Harp's. When the husband exited the truck, Watson sped away with the wife still in the vehicle. The husband told police he chased after the truck as best he could, but it got away, turning south onto Cardinal Drive. The husband described the driver of the truck as a man in his 50's, bald with a beard, wearing a light blue t-shirt, dark shorts and tennis shoes.
After officers arrived at the scene, they began interviewing the husband but soon saw the wife running toward the group yelling and crying from the direction of Highway 62/412. She was covered in blood and had obvious facial injuries. She described in detail what the driver of the truck had said and done. She was at one point, she managed to call 911 while in the truck — reporting she had been kidnapped — but said Watson grabbed the phone and threw it out the window. She said she had punched Watson in the head, but that only angered him and he began to beat and punch her her in the face.
After leaving Harp's, Watson drove the woman to the parking lot of another business where he demanded she drink some vodka, remove her clothing and perform sexual acts. At one point, she asked Watson if she could dress and leave and he said she could. At that point, she scrambled out of the truck, ran back to Harp's and located her husband who was talking with police.
Later that evening, a trooper with the Arkansas State Police responded to a call of a man passed out in a pickup truck on the parking lot of a liquor store near Walmart. When the trooper approached and asked the man what he was doing there, he replied he was trying to sober up. The trooper noticed blood in the vehicle along with an open bottle of vodka. He called Mountain Home Police and an officer responded to the scene. Watson was identified as the man in the truck, and it was noted he also fit the description of the suspect in the abduction and rape earlier in the evening.
Watson was booked into the Baxter County Detention Center in the early morning hours of August 1st last year.
Currently, Watson is an inmate in the Varner Unit of the State Prison System.
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