(AP) – A judge has ruled that incriminating statements an
Arkansas man made to police after his arrest in 2001 will be inadmissible in his
retrial.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports 59-year-old Rickey Dale Newman was
granted Monday his motion to suppress statements he made March 1 and March 7,
2001. Crawford County Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell says that Newman was mentally
incompetent when he made the statements, meaning he could not give a knowing
account because of his condition.
Newman is charged with first-degree murder in the February 2001 death and
mutilation of 46-year-old Marie Cholette.
Newman’s attorney, Julie Brain, filed the suppression motion in September
2014. She claims detectives took advantage of Newman’s mental condition to get
him to confess to Cholette’s murder, even though Newman told police he doesn’t
remember killing her.
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