Inmate suspected in shooting dies in apparent suicide
Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008
A state prisoner suspected of shooting his estranged girlfriend and another man during a weekend furlough was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head Monday morning.
Search crews discovered the body of Craig Beavers Jr. and a small-caliber pistol around 8: 30 a. m. in a wooded area along a creek bank in Howard County, less than a mile from the home outside of Nashville where, authorities say, he opened fire in a fit of jealousy Sunday afternoon.
The discovery ended an overnight hunt for the 28-year-old inmate, who was within 15 months of eligibility for parole from a 13-year sentence for drug, weapons and assault charges.
Terrill Johnson, Beavers’ estranged girlfriend and the sponsor of the furlough, was treated at an area hospital for a bullet wound to an arm. Tyreace Miller was shot in the mouth and groin. He was to undergo surgery at a Little Rock hospital Monday, authorities said.
Beavers apparently became enraged when he learned that Johnson, 36, and Miller, 38, were in a relationship, Howard County Sheriff Butch Morris said.
Beavers was supposed to stay with Johnson at her home on Arkansas 371 for the weekend. He stayed, instead, at a motel in Nashville, which violates furlough rules, Morris said.
Beavers was a work-release inmate at the Pine Bluff unit. He had been on four previous furloughs without trouble, said Dina Tyler, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Correction. His record as an inmate was good, and he was eligible for parole in November 2009, Tyler said.
At any given time, about 500 prisoners are out on work release, a program that lets them earn time off their sentence, Tyler said. Inmates may have one furlough a month, Tyler said.
The department allows someone who has regularly visited a prisoner and who will assume responsibility for the inmate on furlough to sponsor the inmate, Tyler said.
An internal inquiry is under way to determine whether policies were violated and whether the program needs to be revamped, Tyler said.
Investigators don’t know how Beavers obtained the pistol or who drove him from Nashville to Johnson’s home on Saturday and Sunday, Morris said.
Beavers’ body was sent to the State Crime Laboratory for autopsy.
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