Special judge assigned to preside over Blewett case

Thomas Kevin Blewett

Less than a week after an expected plea agreement for Thomas Kevin Blewett — the Carroll County teenager charged with first-degree murder in the 2025 death of another local teen — did not materialize during a court hearing, a special judge was assigned to the case.

In an order filed Friday, May 22, Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Karen Baker appointed retired circuit judge Gary Arnold to preside over Blewett’s case. Baker’s order followed Carroll County Circuit Judge Scott Jackson’s recusal on Wednesday, May 20 — two days after Blewett’s most recent court appearance.

Although no plea agreement was discussed in open court during that May 18 hearing, protesters — including relatives of homicide victim Alexzander Drake Bernhardt — said family members had been advised of a planned agreement that would have allowed Blewett to plead guilty to manslaughter.

Instead, after meeting with Jackson in chambers before court convened, neither Carroll County prosecuting attorney Tony Rogers nor defense attorney W.H. Taylor made any motions during the hearing. Blewett, 18, remains scheduled to stand trial beginning Monday, June 22, on charges including first-degree murder. Jackson scheduled a final pretrial hearing for Monday, June 1.

Jackson said during the May 18 hearing that he had received “some mail from family members that frankly voiced disappointment with these proceedings.”

Jackson said that mail would be entered as exhibits in the case.

Jackson also disclosed that his daughter — who recently graduated from the University of Arkansas School of Law — worked as a clerk for Taylor’s law firm last year. Jackson said his daughter had no knowledge of any cases he might preside over, and Taylor said she had been instructed “not to touch any files” involving Carroll County cases.

Jackson’s recusal cited “a conflict.”

According to an affidavit filed in the case, deputies dispatched to Carroll County Road 435 north of Oak Grove on July 9, 2025, found the 19-year-old Bernhardt lying in the roadway with a fatal gunshot wound.

Arkansas State Police Special Agent Jana Cordes wrote in the affidavit that Blewett allegedly shot Bernhardt in the forehead while the two were riding in a 2016 Kia Soul with two other occupants. Investigators allege Blewett then removed Bernhardt’s body from the vehicle, attempted to clean the interior and helped conceal the vehicle in a wooded area near Oak Grove.

Witnesses later told investigators that Blewett was holding a tan 9-millimeter pistol immediately after the shooting and allegedly said, “I’m gonna go to prison for life,” according to the affidavit.

The affidavit says Green Forest police officer Tommy Blewett — the defendant’s father — later contacted dispatchers with information about the vehicle’s location. During a November bond hearing, Rogers said Tommy Blewett was “not cooperating” with investigators and said the elder Blewett’s cellphone had “pinged at a farm pond at 3:30 a.m.” near where Bernhardt’s body was discovered.

Rogers also said in March that investigators recovered a 9-millimeter shell casing and an AR-9 rifle during the investigation, but that the handgun believed to have been used in the shooting had not been recovered.