A Little Rock woman sought in connection with a violent home invasion in Hot Springs on Aug. 10 was arrested Tuesday night after causing a disturbance at a local hotel.
Darlene Ann Kostyk, 34, was taken into custody shortly before 8 p.m. at Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, 4307 Central Ave., on a felony warrant for aggravated residential burglary, punishable by up to life in prison, and also charged with a felony count of theft by receiving, punishable by up to six years, and misdemeanor counts of theft of property under $1,000 and theft of services, each punishable by up to one year in jail.
Kostyk was being held on zero bond and was set to appear Wednesday in Garland County District Court.
According to the probable cause affidavit on the aggravated residential burglary charge, on Aug. 10, shortly after 2 a.m., Hot Springs police responded to a residence in the 1000 block of Twin Points Road regarding a burglary in progress.
Officers met with the female owner of the residence, who had fled to a nearby neighbor's house. She stated that a woman she knew as Darlene rang her doorbell at around 1 a.m. asking to use her phone because she had been in a car wreck up the road.
It was later noted the victim and her son had both known Darlene for about a year because she had previously lived with the victim's daughter for about three weeks.
The victim said she let Darlene use her phone, but later discovered she was not calling anyone. When she confronted Darlene about the "fake phone calls," she said Darlene pulled out an unknown weapon and stated she had a knife and forced the victim back to her bedroom.
At that time, the victim's son arrived home from work and attempted to locate his mother. He found his mother's bedroom locked and forced his way in to check on her. At that point, he said he saw the woman he knew as Darlene on top of his mother with an unknown object pressed against her throat.
When the son attempted to intervene, Darlene allegedly told him she would kill his mother and that there were three men outside the residence with guns pointed at them. She ordered the son to go into the bathroom and lock the door.
Meanwhile, Darlene reportedly forced the victim back into the living room and wrapped a phone charger cord around her neck and attempted to strangle her with it. The son began calling out to his mother and Darlene let go of the cord so the victim could answer.
Officers noted the victim had several red marks around her neck and she stated she was unable to breathe while the cord was around her neck.
Both the victim and her son later positively identified Kostyk as the woman they knew as Darlene, who had fled the residence before officers arrived. A warrant was later issued for Kostyk's arrest on the aggravated burglary charge.
According to the affidavits on the additional charges, shortly after 7 p.m. Tuesday, HSPD Officer 1st Class Wes Smith responded to the Country Inn regarding a disorderly person and made contact with the hotel manager and the woman allegedly causing the disturbance, identified as Kostyk, at the front desk.
The manager told him Kostyk had a credit card belonging to a man on file that was preapproved, but when she attempted to charge the card for the balance of $529.03, the card was declined. She said she attempted to contact the owner of the card multiple times for authorization, but was unable to do so.
Kostyk had then given her a debit card belonging to the same man, but the manager had refused it due to the hotel's policy. Kostyk was given multiple opportunities to get a way to pay the bill, but she was not able to do so.
At that time, Kostyk was arrested for theft of services and in searching her, Smith reportedly found a man's debit card in her possession. He contacted the owner of the card to see if she had permission to use it and the man told him she did not have permission and that the card had been stolen during a burglary of his residence earlier that day.
Kostyk was also allegedly in possession of a key fob for a Jeep in her pocket. Sgt. Jerry Freeman was able to track the key to a 2018 Jeep Renegade that was reported stolen in Little Rock on Aug. 5. The Jeep was located in the parking lot of Country Inn around 1 p.m. on Tuesday. At that time, Kostyk was also charged with the theft of the key fob and the card.
Local on 08/22/2019