A man charged with killing his neighbor appeared during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Monday.
Twenty-eight-year-old Johnathan Mauldin entered a guilty plea to terroristic threatening and was given five years probation.
MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE DISMISSED
The manslaughter charge that had been filed against him was dismissed by the state.
Prosecutor David Ethredge said evidence developed during the investigation, including the report from the State Medical Examiner’s Office, did not give prosecutors the answer to vital questions needed to take the case to trial — such as who shot first and what initially caused the exchange of gunfire.
The charges against Mauldin were filed at two different times, but arose from the same incident on May 25, 2020.
THREATS TO POLICE
Mauldin’s terroristic threatening charge stems from profanity-laced threats he is alleged to have made to police dealing with the incident, including telling one officer he would kill him by snapping his neck.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Mountain Home police officers were sent to the Quail Run Apartments in response to a report of a possible shooting involving neighbors.
When officers arrived, they found Mauldin lying in the breezeway screaming. He was reported to have abruptly gotten up and “staggered to his apartment.”
Mauldin, who was described as extremely intoxicated, disregarded commands to halt, entered his residence and headed toward a back bedroom. Police reported his girlfriend attempted to stop him.
The body of the victim – then 67-year-old Jamie Sanders – was found in his apartment. He was reported to have died from two gunshot wounds. His body was sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy.
NO MEMORY OF SHOOTING
Mauldin is alleged to have told investigators he remembered being at Sander’s apartment drinking, but said he couldn’t recall anything related to the shooting itself.
Both Mauldin and Sanders were reported to have blood alcohol levels well above the legal limit. Mauldin’s registered at 0.33 and Sanders’at 0.43.
In Arkansas, if a person registers 0.08, he or she can be charged with drunk driving. According to medical publications, once a person’s blood alcohol concentration reaches 0.40, there is a significant risk of coma or death.
Two handguns were recovered from Sanders’ apartment – one belonged to Mauldin and one to the dead man. There were a number of spent rounds from both weapons found in the victim’s apartment, according to the probable cause affidavit.
The more serious manslaughter charge was not filed against Mauldin until late October 2020.
GIRLFRIEND FOUGHT NO CONTACT ORDER
In the initial stages of the case, a no contact order was made a condition of Mauldin’s bond. Under the order, he was to have no contact with his live-in girlfriend, then 25-year-old Mary Alice Guist.
As the case wound through the courts, the girlfriend made a number of tries at getting the order dismissed so she and Mauldin could be reunited.
Guist signed statements, wrote letters and testified at one hearing to in her effort to have some type of contact reestablished with Mauldin.
The girlfriend has said repeatedly that, contrary to the initial domestic battery charge filed against him, Mauldin did not become physical with her on the day of the murder.
She said she was attempting to restrain Mauldin as he was making his way toward the back bedroom of their apartment when he “shrugged me off his back.”
She further claims, “The incident was not what it appeared to be.”
The girlfriend wrote in her statement that she was not injured by Mauldin’s actions.
She told the court that Mauldin did have a drinking problem, but she had never felt threatened by him during the two years they had been “partners.” Guist admitted that Mauldin “would yell at me when he was drinking, but never got physical.”
Guist testified that “our relationship has not been a walk in the park, but I care deeply about him.”
Mauldin has been enrolled in a residential rehab facility in Mountain Home and is reported to be making “excellent progress” in dealing with his alcohol addiction.
The facility staff reports Mauldin had been “clean and sober” for some time. The rehab facility has a zero tolerance policy. If a participant breaks the rules, that person is kicked out of the program.
Jordan Tinsley of the Little Rock law firm of Tinsley and Youngdahl and Mountain Home attorney Paul Bayless represented Mauldin.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI