TEXARKANA, Ark. — Eighteen years after a Texarkana man was arrested in the killings of his mother and stepfather, the capital murder case against him is still open in Miller County, and the latest report from the Arkansas State Hospital says he is not likely to stand trial in the foreseeable future.
Bronson Slade Scoggins, 56, has been held at the State Hospital in Little Rock since February 2009. At a Nov. 10 review of the case, Circuit Judge Carlton Jones again stopped the speedy-trial clock and set the next status date for Feb. 16, 2027, according to a record of appearance filed Thursday. A handwritten note on the form refers to the State Hospital and a 180-day commitment.
Scoggins is charged with two counts of capital murder in the Aug. 15, 2008, deaths of his mother, Sandra Walsh, and his stepfather, Joseph A. “Al” Walsh, at their home on Big Rock Circle in Texarkana, Arkansas. The charge is punishable by death or life in prison without parole. He has not been tried, and no court has ruled on his guilt.
Two calls in one evening
According to the arrest affidavit by Texarkana Arkansas police Officer Chris Estes, police went to the house twice that day.
The first call, at 5:51 p.m., was for a disturbance. Scoggins told the officer his mother would not give him his money and that he wanted to get it and move, the affidavit says. Sandra Walsh told the officer her son had a mental illness, had not been taking his medication correctly and “has never been violent towards them.” The officer wrote that he asked both of the Walshes whether they were in fear of danger from Scoggins, “and they stated ‘No.'” He told Scoggins to stay home until Monday and left.
At 8:14 p.m., police were sent back. Dispatch reported that a male caller had said, “I did it in self defense, I got both of them,” according to the affidavit. Estes wrote that he found Scoggins standing in the driveway with his arms crossed and that Scoggins repeated the statement. Inside, the officer found Al Walsh in his living room recliner and Sandra Walsh in a hallway, both dead. A kitchen knife and an axe handle were on the kitchen floor, the affidavit says.
Prosecutors filed the two capital murder counts the following month.
Article continues below
▼ Continue reading
Found unfit in 2009
A judge ordered a mental evaluation in November 2008. On Jan. 5, 2009, the court found that Scoggins lacked the fitness to proceed, suspended the case and committed him to the state for treatment “until restoration of fitness to proceed.” He was admitted to the State Hospital on Feb. 17, 2009.
Under Arkansas law, a defendant cannot be tried while a mental disease or defect leaves him unable to understand the proceedings or help his lawyer. That question is separate from whether a defendant was legally responsible at the time of the crime, which is decided only if a case goes forward.
Court records show the case has come close to moving twice. A state psychologist concluded in November 2009 that Scoggins had been restored to fitness, but in March 2010 a hospital physician wrote the court that he had regressed. That month the hospital obtained a civil commitment in Pulaski County, and those orders have been renewed about every 180 days since, most recently on May 29, according to the Pulaski County docket.
In 2016, another evaluator found Scoggins fit, and he was brought to Texarkana for a hearing, as TXKtoday reported at the time. After testimony from the psychologist on Sept. 13, 2016, Jones found that Scoggins was still not fit to proceed and sent him back to the hospital.
A 2017 report said it was “very unlikely” he could be restored. In April 2019 his treating physician wrote the judge that Scoggins “is just as ill today as he was on admission many years ago” and “is not expected to ever be fit for a lengthy murder trial.” A judge’s note from January 2021 reads, “Not restorable.”
The 2026 evaluation
The newest report came at Scoggins’ own request. Hospital records quoted in the evaluation say that over several months he showed interest in restoring his fitness, attended competency groups and asked to be re-evaluated. His psychiatrist wrote in March, “While I have doubts as to whether he will be found fit, we will honor that request given his open case.”
Dr. Jordyn Wolfe, a forensic psychiatry fellow at the State Hospital, examined him June 1. Her 18-page report was filed in Miller County on July 1.
Wolfe wrote that Scoggins was cooperative and earned a passing score on a standard test of courtroom knowledge, correctly describing the roles of the judge, jury and defense attorney. But she concluded that he lacks the capacity to understand the proceedings against him or to assist his attorney. The report says he continues to tell hospital staff that his mother and stepfather are alive, and that when told the possible sentences for capital murder he said he expected probation.
Scoggins’ illness “precludes restoration to fitness in the foreseeable future,” Wolfe wrote, adding that his symptoms have persisted “despite appropriate treatment.” The report says he “had been continuously hospitalized for approximately 17 years.”
The report also says Scoggins “poses a high risk of danger to himself, others, and their property” and needs a structured, supervised setting. It notes that recent hospital records show “isolated behavioral outbursts, but no recent episodes of physical aggression,” and a 2025 hospital review cited in the report describes him as getting along with staff and other patients.
The evaluations on file say Scoggins was first admitted to the State Hospital in 1993 and was acquitted by reason of mental disease or defect in a 1993 Miller County aggravated assault case. He was placed on court-supervised conditional release in 1994 and lived in an apartment on his mother and stepfather’s property, returning to the hospital repeatedly for violating the conditions. That supervision expired May 31, 2007, the reports say.
The case is 46CR-08-525 in Miller County Circuit Court.