A Hot Springs man was convicted Thursday and sentenced to two and a half years in prison for stabbing another man in 2015 after a two-day trial in Garland County Circuit Court.
Gregory Everett Howell, 47, was initially charged with first-degree battery for the June 15, 2015, stabbing of Harold Casey, but a seven-man, five-woman jury found him guilty of the lesser charge of second-degree battery and recommended a sentence of two years and six months in prison.
They also recommended that Howell pay $420 in court costs and $3,405.43 in restitution to the victim, due within 30 days of his release from prison.
An additional felony charge of aggravated assault on a family or household member involving the attempted stabbing of Howell's live-in girlfriend was withdrawn by prosecutors.
Howell, who lists a Honeycutt Street address, was initially arrested the day of the incident and later released on $7,500 bond. He has remained in custody since his last arrest on Aug. 8, after failing to appear in court for a hearing related to his charges.
According to the affidavit, on June 15, 2015, shortly before 6 a.m., Garland County sheriff's Deputy Jon Lane responded to a stabbing in progress at 306 Skyview Terrace, located off Whittington Avenue.
Upon arrival, he made contact with the woman who had called 911, who stated that a known suspect, later identified as Howell, had followed her to her residence on Skyview and then blocked her in with his vehicle.
Howell then got into an argument with his live-in girlfriend, Crystal Cross, who ran and got into a pickup driven by Casey. Howell yelled at Cross, "You get out of that truck or I'm going to kill you both."
Howell then jumped on the side of the truck with a knife in his hand and stabbed at Casey and Cross through the open window, cutting Casey on the wrist and lower stomach. Lane spoke with Casey later at the National Park Medical Center emergency room and he confirmed Howell stabbed him and had wanted to kill him and Cross.
The injury to Casey's wrist was stitched in the emergency room, but the stab wound to his abdomen required emergency surgery.
Howell was later stopped at Linden and Walnut streets by Hot Springs police officers and deputies and taken into custody.
Local on 12/02/2017