A Texarkana, Ark., man who ran over and killed his wife in 2016 received a total 30-year prison sentence Tuesday.
Lucas Connor McCarley, 36, appeared with Texarkana lawyer Matt Stephens before Circuit Judge Brent Haltom in a courtroom at the Miller County jail Tuesday afternoon. McCarley pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia. Haltom revoked probations McCarley was serving for breaking and entering and theft of property which he received in 2014.
Casey McCarley found her husband in the company of another woman at about 1 a.m. March 3, 2016. She got out of her car to confront him as he idled on Miller County 22 and was struck and killed when Lucas McCarley tried to drive away. When Miller County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived, they found Casey McCarley dead in the road, a blue tarp covering her body. In Lucas McCarley’s truck, deputies found methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. Lucas McCarley has been in jail since.
At several points during the hearing Lucas McCarley complained about the length of time his plea bargain would require him to serve. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell reminded him he could receive up to 66 years in prison if he took his case to trial.
“No. I don’t want 66. I don’t want 30. I don’t want to do any,” Lucas McCarley said.
Lucas McCarley asked why his cases couldn’t all be run at the same time. Mitchell responded by telling him that her office will not agree to concurrent sentences for probation revocations and subsequent criminal offenses.
Lucas McCarley received 25 years for criminally negligent homicide, 12 years for possession of methamphetamine and 12 years for possession of drug paraphernalia. All of those sentences will run at the same time. Lucas McCarley received five-year prison terms for each of the offenses he was serving probation for. Those five-year terms will run at the same time but consecutive to the 25-year term.
Once sentencing was complete, Lucas and Casey McCarley’s 11-year-old daughter faced her father and gave a victim impact statement. The young girl told Lucas McCarley that she wanted to come to court for herself, her younger sister and her mother.
“She won’t be there for our birthdays, our graduations and weddings. She won’t get to see her grandchildren. That night she went out she told me we were going to Grammy’s later, but she never came home,” the victim’s daughter said. “She was the most important person in our lives and you took her away from us. I know some day I am going to have to forgive you but I’m never going to forget what you did.”
Casey McCarley’s mother asked Lucas McCarley why he had to move his truck in the direction he did.
“I had three children. Two sons and a daughter and you took my only daughter,” Francis Cornett said. “Now I’m raising your daughters. Thank God they’re like her and not you. They’re in the best care they could be in, other than their mother’s.”
