At 8:30 a.m., on July 21, court officials and law enforcement arrived in the courtroom at the Ouachita County Detention Complex.
In an hour and half, Travis Eugene "Joey" Posey would appear before Circuit Judge Spencer Singleton. Posey's lawyers, the prosecuting attorney and the shooting victims and families of those who lost their lives on June 21, 2024, in a mass shooting at the Fordyce Mad Butcher all knew what would occur at 10 a.m.
Posey, 46, entered the courtroom wearing prison orange as he stood at a lectern facing Singleton. He wore glasses. Each count was read and the judge asked how Posey pled.
Posey pled guilty to four capital murder charges for the deaths of Callie Weems, Roy Sturgis, Shirley Taylor and Ellen Shrum and 11 counts of attempted murder.
With each plea his voice seemed to become lower and more hoarse.
Prosecuting Attorney Jeffrey Rogers read a timeline of Posey's shooting spree that lasted roughly one minute and thirty seconds. Posey said nothing. He gave no reason for his actions.
With his plea arrangement the trial planned for early August in Fordyce was no longer on the table.
The minute the news broke about the pleas many people became outrage posting on social media that Posey should stand trial and be given the death penalty.
He got off easy. He should see a death squad.
One similar comment after another popped up on social media.
Helen Browning-Grice, the mother of Weems, 23, lost her daughter, who worked as a nurse at Dallas County Medical Center, in the mass shooting.
The Reckoning received permission to share her Facebook post about the plea deal:
I’m just gonna say this and I’m done, not gonna argue with people who don’t have a clue…..the last time someone was put to death in the state of Arkansas was 2017 before the medications expired the pharmaceutical companies will not sale the needed medications to the state because they don’t want their name and medication associated with death….yes there is a new way passed this year with nitrogen oxide gas but there will be court battles on it before its actually used….so if we’d sat through a trial seeing EVERYTHING that nightmares are made of and he’d sat silently on death row for MANY YEARS in a one man cell humming his life away….the plea which I agree with has him walking and living in general population of a Maximum Security Prison scared, watching his back, his front, sides, and trying to sleep with one eye open…. nothing can bring my baby girl back, Roy, Ms Janie, or Ms Taylor back but this way we can rest and have some sort of closure.
On Friday, Dallas County Sheriff Mike Knoedl posted about the plea arrangement in his weekly Facebook post to his constituents.
He wrote:
It has been an emotional week for our community with the shooting suspect accepting a plea agreement on Monday. I ask that you continue to keep everyone involved in your thoughts and prayers. I have heard some talk asking why he didn't receive the death penalty. There were numerous meetings held with the victim's family members leading up to the plea agreement. I attended several of these meetings. The consensus was to accept the plea, which will result in life in prison. I am asking everyone to respect the victims' families and their choice. It's not easy for everyone to agree on what they would want in this situation. The last execution in Arkansas was in 2017, and there are currently no drugs available to carry out an execution. The fact of the matter is that it may take over 30 years of appeals before it ever takes place. Each appeal requires the families to relive the incident each time. Anytime something like this happens, not everyone will be pleased with the outcome. Just keep praying for those affected.
Next up
On Monday, August 4, Singleton will sentence Posey in the same Ouachita County courtroom where he appeared on July 21.
Posey will have to listen to victims address him as they present their victim impact statements to the court.
