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Photo: Ryan James LindseyThe fourth suspect in the murder of 35-year-old Cody Stradford in mid-December last year is back in Arkansas.
Twenty-eight-year-old Ryan James Lindsey was brought from Texas and booked into the Baxter County Detention Center Friday evening at 5:48.
Lindsey and 42-year-old Allison Cunningham were arrested in South Texas, about 900 miles south of Mountain Home, on Dec. 17 last year. She was extradited to Arkansas Jan. 13.
Photo: Allison Cunningham
Cunningham and two other suspects, 38-year-old Skylar Brazil of Mountain Home, and 35-year-old Ashley Nicole Hendricks of Siloam Springs, have all been formally charged with being involved in the Stradford murder.
Photos: Skylar Brazil and Ashley Hendricks
All of the suspects are now in jail in Baxter County, except for Hendricks. Her $500,000 bond was cut in half Jan. 28, and she was released into the custody of a relative.
As a condition of her bond, she is required to wear an ankle monitor.
Bond for Brazil is set at $500,000. The bond for Cunningham and Lindsey is set at one million dollars.
Lindsey has been in the Hidalgo County, Texas jail since being picked up.
According to online jail records, in addition to being held for Arkansas authorities in the murder case, Lindsey has been charged in Texas with unlawful possession of a weapon.
According to information provided to KTLO, Classic Hits & the Boot news by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) in response to a freedom of information request, it appears Lindsey and Cunningham were traveling in separate cars.
The DPS reports show Lindsey was driving a 2006 BMW Z4, reported stolen from Arkansas. Cunningham was in a 2020 Hyundai Elantra. The status on that vehicle listed in the report does not indicate if it had been reported stolen.
A section of the DPS report lists the Comfort Inn and Suites at 2706 North Cage Boulevard in Pharr, Texas, as being involved in the apprehension of Lindsey and Cunningham. Much of the information in the 27 pages of documents furnished by the Texas DPS to KTLO, Classic Hits & the Boot news has been redacted. The report does not indicate, for example, if Lindsey and Cunningham were actually staying at the Comfort Inn at the time they were arrested on Dec. 17 last year.
The assistant general counsel of the DPS wrote that an opinion is being sought from the office of the Texas Attorney General as to whether all of the details surrounding the arrest of the pair can be released at this point
Information pertaining to an ongoing investigation is exempt from disclosure, at least until the investigation is completed, the DPS attorney said.
Charges against the four individuals in Arkansas vary but include murder, kidnapping, battery, arson and being a felon in possession of a weapon.
Stradford’s body was found in a burned car off Old Arkana Road Dec. 16 last year. Investigators reported the vehicle appeared to have been there for several days.
Lindsey’s is the most familiar name among the four murder suspects. His criminal history goes back to 2010, when he was a teenager.
After that first brush with the law, he had other criminal cases opened against him in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 and last year.
Through the years, Lindsey has been accused of possessing a defaced firearm, being a felon in possession of a weapon, residential burglary, theft of property, possession of contraband in the Baxter County Detention Center, theft by receiving and possessing illegal drugs.
All of his criminal cases were opened against him in Baxter County, although he apparently had been living in the Little Rock area in the recent past.
Lindsey has been locked up in the state prison system and the county jail.
His latest release from prison came on April 23 last year. He stopped reporting to probation and parole and was declared a fugitive only 100 days after his release.
He was rearrested Aug. 19 last year and charged with theft by receiving stemming from an allegation he was in possession of a motorcycle reported stolen in Mountain Home the month before.
He bonded out on that charge and appears to have been free on that bond when Stradford was killed.
Prosecutors have sealed the details of how the four people came together and what might have motivated the alleged crime.
It is expected Lindsey’s arrest will result in prosecutors making more details public.
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