Baughman Deemed Fit for Trial
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
A Four-State judge rules that a man accused of murder is fit to stand trial. A Benton County circuit judge ruled yesterday that James Arnold Baughman, accused in the murders of a Pea Ridge couple, is not mentally handicapped. The judge in the case said defense lawyers failed to prove Baughman was mentally impaired and unfit for trial. The ruling lets prosecutors proceed with their death penalty case against him. Baughman`s trial is set to start Monday. He is charged in the 1999 murder-for-hire deaths of Joanne Kneece and her ex-husband James Floyd Suggs. Baughman and Rose Allen Cushman were charged in the case. Cushman pleaded guilty in August to two lesser charges of first-degree murder and agreed to testify against Baughman. She was sentenced to 40 years on each count.
