Two weeks after an anticipated plea deal did not materialize in the case of Thomas Kevin Blewett — the Carroll County teenager charged with first-degree murder in the 2025 death of another local teen — Blewett’s attorney appeared to suggest that an agreement could be back in play.
During a brief hearing Monday, June 1, in Carroll County Circuit Court in Berryville, special judge Gary Arnold scheduled another hearing for 1:30 p.m. Thursday, June 4, with defense attorney W.H. Taylor saying: “We believe that we’ll dispose of the case at that time.”
Arnold, a retired circuit judge from Saline County, was appointed by Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Karen Baker to preside over the case on May 22 — two days after Carroll County Circuit Judge Scott Jackson’s recusal from the case.
Jackson’s recusal followed a May 18 hearing in which the judge disclosed that his daughter, who recently graduated from the University of Arkansas School of Law, had worked as a clerk in Taylor’s law firm while attending law school. 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.”
Protesters including family members of homicide victim Alexzander Drake Bernhardt had gathered outside the courthouse before the May 18 hearing, saying that Bernhardt’s family 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 Taylor made any motions during the hearing.
Blewett, 18, had been scheduled to stand trial beginning Monday, June 22.
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.
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