HEMPSTEAD COUNTY, Ark.–A woman who died in July after allegedly being set on fire by her husband at a trailer home in Fulton, Ark., had told a police officer in Texarkana, Texas, months before that she was “scared” of her spouse.
Bruce Lee Cockrell Jr., 47, was arrested by the Hempstead County Sheriff’s Office for arson and capital murder after allegedly pouring gasoline on his wife and setting her on fire July 8, according to a statement issued last month by the Hempstead County Sheriff’s Dept.
Tonya Cockrell, 35, reportedly told medical personnel at a Texarkana hospital where she was initially treated for her burn injuries, that Bruce Cockrell had been hitting and punching her while telling her “how ugly she was,” before dousing her with gas and lighting her body on fire. Tonya Cockrell died July 9 in the burn unit of Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, having suffered severe burns over her entire body, the sheriff’s office’s statement said.
Tonya Cockrell was questioned by Texarkana, Texas, police in February in connection with the theft of building materials from a large construction project in the city’s downtown, according to a probable cause affidavit. She told an investigator that she allowed her identification to be used in the sale of the building materials to a scrap yard because “she is scared of her husband, so she does what he says.”
Bruce Cockrell was charged with felony burglary in that case and in June he was placed on a five-year term of probation in Bowie County, Texas. He had only been out of jail for two weeks when he allegedly murdered his wife.
Cockrell is being held in the Hempstead County jail without bail on the capital murder and arson charges. A warrant is active for his arrest in Bowie County in connection with a motion to revoke his probation there.
Cockrell faces the possibility of a death sentence or life without parole if convicted of capital murder in his wife’s death.
