Capital Murder Charge Dropped In 2022 Edwards Street Killing After Hung Jury
TEXARKANA, Ark.–Miller County prosecutors have dropped a capital murder charge against a man accused in the August 2022 shooting death of Bonderic Nard on Edwards Street after his trial in May ended with a hung jury.
Circuit Judge Wren Autrey granted the state’s motion to drop the charge against Vance Brown, 33, at a hearing Tuesday, according to court records. Brown appeared in court with his attorney, Lee Short of North Little Rock. No further court date has been set in the murder case.
“Previous trial resulted in mistrial due to hung jury. State is pursuing possible new leads, witnesses and evidence,” the motion filed by Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell’s office said. Autrey’s order dismisses the charge “subject to the right of the State of Arkansas to re-file said charge(s) for good cause shown.”
Mitchell told TXKtoday that she could not comment on the new leads, evidence or witnesses her office is pursuing “as it is a continuing and ongoing investigation.”
“When additional information is found, the case can be refiled,” Mitchell said. She said the murder case “will be resolved after the two battery cases” Brown still faces, and that his pending Miller County charges “should be resolved within the next 12 months.”
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Nard, 27, of Texarkana, Arkansas, was found dead in the 1600 block of Edwards Street on the morning of Aug. 15, 2022. That day, Texarkana, Arkansas, police obtained a capital murder warrant for Brown, who was then 29 and homeless. The Bowie County Sheriff’s Office arrested him and booked him into the Bi-State Jail to await extradition. He was served with the Arkansas warrant in November 2022.
A criminal information filed in January 2023 alleged Brown caused Nard’s death during an aggravated robbery or, in the alternative, with premeditation.
The case was on hold for much of 2023 and 2024. In August 2023 and again in May 2024, the court found Brown unfit to proceed and committed him to the Arkansas Department of Human Services for treatment until he was restored to fitness, court records show.
Brown’s jury trial began May 26. On May 29, the fourth day of trial, Autrey declared a mistrial when jurors could not reach a verdict.
In a pretrial order filed the day the trial opened, Autrey wrote that the state had disclosed two jail calls it planned to play for jurors, along with evidence that Brown had allegedly been dealing drugs around the time of the killing. The state also said it would offer evidence of Brown’s “prior batteries in the detention center” if the defense opened the door to it. Autrey allowed Brown to wear civilian clothes at trial, with a stun belt hidden underneath.
A second trial was scheduled for August and later reset for Nov. 16 before the state’s motion to drop the charge was granted at Tuesday’s pretrial hearing.
Brown remains in the Miller County jail, where he has been held since Nov. 16, 2022.
He still faces two first-degree battery charges in Miller County that were filed in 2024 while the murder case was pending. Each alleges he seriously injured a man with a deadly weapon, one on April 23, 2024, and the other on July 18, 2024, according to court records. The Miller County Sheriff’s Office is listed as the arresting agency in both cases.
In August, prosecutors amended both charges to allege Brown has four or more prior felony convictions, which raises the possible sentence on each count to five to 40 years in prison. Both cases were continued Tuesday at Brown’s request, and court records list a March 2 pretrial hearing and a March 29 trial date. Mitchell said one of the battery cases is set for trial in March and the other will be placed on the court’s trial schedule after that.