Mercury that spilled from a wrecked car in May, leading to an environmental cleanup that cost the city thousands of dollars, was reportedly stolen from the son of a deceased dentist in Cleveland County.
A court document obtained Friday by The Sentinel-Record shows that the driver of the 2009 Mitsubishi Galant that wrecked in a Hot Springs parking lot on May 16, Dakota Avants, 22, of Pine Bluff, is a suspect in the burglary in Cleveland County, which involved the theft of 200 pounds of elemental mercury.
The document, a probable cause affidavit, indicates that another person of interest in the burglary may have become ill as a result of the toxic material, and that officers with the Arkansas State Police were warned they could have been contaminated at the site of the wreck.
The source of the mercury has remained a mystery since the car wreck, which occurred in a parking lot owned by the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission on Malvern Avenue and claimed the lives of two Pine Bluff women. None of the accident reports released to the newspaper mention the presence of mercury, which is considered a hazardous material, and local officials involved in the cleanup have declined to comment on its source.
Avants was charged in Hot Spring County with two counts of first-degree murder after the two passengers in the vehicle, Kersha L. Arrington, 32, and Ashley Nicole Whittington, 30, both of Pine Bluff, died as the result of injuries sustained in the May crash, which occurred after a high-speed pursuit that originated in Hot Spring County.
Avants reportedly told investigators that he was trying to impress his two passengers with the high-speed pursuit, and estimates he was traveling at around 130 mph when the vehicle crashed in the parking lot in the 400 block of Malvern Avenue in the early morning hours of May 16.
He is also charged in Cleveland County with one count of theft of property, three counts of breaking or entering, residential burglary, and second-degree criminal mischief.
Avants, when interviewed by a Cleveland County Sheriff's Department investigator at the Jefferson County Detention Center in Pine Bluff on July 3, denied having anything to do with the burglary involving the mercury, according to the affidavit obtained Friday. He claimed the mercury was already in the Galant when the two fatality victims and a third person arrived to pick him up the morning of May 16.
The affidavit, which was provided to the newspaper by Thomas D. Wynne III, deputy prosecutor for Calhoun, Dallas and Cleveland counties, says the son told the investigator with the Cleveland County Sheriff's Department that the mercury was left over from his deceased father's dental practice, and had been located in the barn area of his residence in Rison.
The mercury was packaged in 10 pint-size to quart-size jars with a cork lid, and weighed around 200 pounds, the affidavit said.
After developing Avants as a suspect in the burglary, along with three other Pine Bluff men, the affidavit says the investigator learned on May 24 that Avants had been involved in a wreck in Hot Springs, and that some of the liquid mercury may have been in the vehicle.
He contacted the Hot Springs Fire Department in reference to their response to the scene of the wreck, and received two incident reports, once of which showed that liquid mercury was "observed scattered all over the ground and parking lot area."
The investigator later contacted the special agent for the Arkansas State Police who was in charge of the Hot Springs investigation to advise him that ASP officers may have been contaminated with liquid mercury while working the scene of the wreck, and that there was "possible liquid mercury spilled in the vehicle that Avants was driving the night of the accident."
The special agent later told the investigator that he had obtained a search warrant for the Galant and discovered "busted containers containing liquid mercury in the vehicle. The vehicle was then quarantined."
The affidavit also notes that another person mentioned in connection with the burglary "later got very sick" from the mercury. When contacted by the investigator, he stated "that stuff has ruined his life," referring to the mercury.
Following the collision, the damaged vehicle was towed by Combs & Burks Wrecker Service and remains on the wrecker service's impound lot, at the request of law enforcement.
"I would like to get rid of it and get it crushed," Combs & Burks' owner, Wayne Touchton, told The Sentinel-Record earlier this week. "I've just got a car full of poison sitting on my property that I can't do anything with."
Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, the convention and visitors bureau operated by the ad commission, initially called in the Hot Springs Fire Department when the mercury was first discovered, and later had to hire an environmental company to dispose of the toxic metal, at a cost of $12,938.29.
Local on 08/28/2016