Man found guilty of murder has filed appeal

   
Dusty Wheeler, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison after a Baxter County Circuit Court jury found him guilty of 1st Degree murder and committing a felony with a firearm, has filed a notice of appeal in his case.

The notice was filed this week by one of his attorneys, Ben Gibson.

At the conclusion of the five-day trial on June 5, the jury retired and deliberated about 2 ½ hours before reaching a verdict in the case. The jury then deliberated and agreed on a sentence to recommend to the court. Circuit Judge Andrew Bailey accepted the jury’s recommendation and formally sentenced the 46-year-old Wheeler.

Wheeler is now housed at the Ouachita River Correctional Unit near Malvern where new inmates are first sent. The unit has a capacity of almost 1,800 inmates.

Wheeler was arrested June 14, 2024, after Mountain Home Police were called to a residence along Sunny Ann Lane near Cooper Park about 6 a.m. where they found a woman’s body sitting in a camping chair outside the house.

The victim, then 36-year-old Heather Bradford, had been shot in the head. An entry wound was found “high-up” on the top of the left side of the victim’s skull behind her ear and an exit wound on the bottom right side of the head behind the ear.

Wheeler who was located inside the residence asleep on a couch, was arrested and eventually charged with the murder.

The Trial

The defendant took the stand on the fourth day of the trial and testified he had been shocked and confused by events of that day – including being awakened by police and his subsequent detention by those officers at the house he had shared with the victim for a short time.

Wheeler said Bradford had become angry on the night of June 13, 2024, apparently over the belief that Wheeler was in touch with another woman. He said during his time on the stand he did not know the person who made the contact.

Bradford came into the bedroom and “was just out of her mind.”

Wheeler testified that the victim began pulling items of clothing out of a closet. He said he left the room and gone into the living room to sleep on the couch.

Wheeler said Bradford made it clear she wanted him out of her house and that she had called U-Haul to rent a vehicle to facilitate the move.

He said at one point while he was still in the bedroom, Bradford poured water on him.

He said he thought “the whole thing would blow over” after he got out of the bedroom and retreated to the couch.

During the early morning hours of June 14, 2024, Bradford called a number of people, including her mother and stepfather, and said Wheeler had punched her in the face as they were arguing.

The mother and stepfather left their home in Marion County and arrived at Bradford’s residence about 45 minutes later. They reported seeing Bradford sitting in the camping chair outside in front of the garage door.

They then saw blood coming from Bradford’s ear and running down her neck.

Parts of a bullet were found in the driveway next to the chair where Bradford’s body was located, but officers were unable to immediately locate a weapon.

The stepfather of the victim turned the gun over to officers and said that his wife had taken possession of a pistol which was in the daughter’s lap when they arrived on scene.

Police reported the mother saying she had removed the gun because she feared if her daughter “woke up” she might reach for it or it might fall to the ground and fire a round. The mother said she put the weapon under the front seat of her vehicle on the driver’s side.

She said she initially believed her daughter was asleep and that the parents would be able to wake her up and take her to the hospital. She said she did not imagine at the outset that her daughter had been killed.

The stepfather turned the pistol over to police. It was noted in incident reports that the barrel end of the weapon was clear of blood and tissue and that no powder burns were visible on the entry wound. If those signs had been detected, it would have pointed to the possibility that the fatal wound had been self-inflicted.

Investigators also noted that the entry wound was found to be on the left side of the victim’s head. Her mother told police she had always been right-handed.

Dr. Adam Craig, an associate medical examiner for the State of Arkansas, testified during the trial that following an autopsy and other testing and examinations, it was determined that Bradford’s manner of death was homicide, not suicide.

He told the jury there were a number of factors that pointed toward homicide, including the entry wound being high up on the head. He said it was much more common to find the trajectory of the bullet in a suicide “going level across the skull.”
He testified there was no evidence of a contact wound, such as soot on the skin.

The position of the entry wound and downward trajectory of the bullet were indications the shooter was standing over the victim when the fatal shot was fired, the associate medical examiner told the jury.

Dr. Craig said the victim had a high blood/alcohol level, according to tests done in the toxicology lab.

Wheeler said during the pre-trial period that he had been in shock, not completely understanding what was happening, and that his initial statements had “been full of inaccuracies.”

One of Wheeler’s attorneys , Ben Burnett of Mountain Home, asked Wheeler if he had had anything to do with Bradford’s murder and he said he had not been involved in her death.

During cross examination, Deputy Prosecutor Kerry Chism led Wheeler through a series of answers he had initially given to various law enforcement officer either at the house on Sunny Ann Lane or at the Mountain Home Police Department.

Wheeler’s answers to the list of questions Chism recited were all correct.

“It’s amazing that this deep shock you say you were in seems to only have effected your memory when it comes to information that incriminates you,” Chism told Wheeler.

Chism asked Wheeler if he had actually been asleep when police entered the house on the day Bradford’s body was found. He replied he had been.

“So, you slept through the sound of sirens on all those police cars, fire trucks and ambulances pulling up to the house?” Wheeler said that was “correct.”

Chism then asked if Wheeler had not heard the sound of the “ten or so people, including first responders, walking around out in your front yard?” Wheeler denied hearing any noises.

During Wheeler’s examination, Chism said witness after witness had said Bradford would never kill herself. Even when he was being questioned at the Mountain Home police station, Wheeler said Bradford “had too much love for her kids to do anything like that.”

One of the defense’s own witnesses testified he was aware Bradford and Wheeler had been fighting but that she had never mentioned ending it all. “She never said anything like that to me, ever,” the witness said.

Bradford’s mother, Leigh Ann Ash, returned to the stand after her initial testimony and answered questions by a defense attorney regarding statements she had made, actions she had taken and a phone call she said she had gotten from her daughter at 5:11 a.m. on June 14 that did not show up on the data dump done on Bradford’s cellphone.

Ash said the 5:11 a.m. phone call was recorded on her phone and she pulled it up. She testified she had no idea why it was not picked up on the data dump.

When someone attempted to help Ash – a self-described non-computer person – to access the call, she quickly cautioned, “don’t erase it, please don’t erase it.” She said she had kept the call on her phone “because that was the last time I talked to my daughter.”

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