CONWAY, Ark. (AP) - The penalty phase of the trial of a 20-year-old Pine Bluff man convicted of killing a 72-year-old Wooster woman is in recess until Tuesday.
Faulkner County jurors are hearing testimony as prosecutors seek the death penalty for Tacori Mackrell in the 2018 death of Elvia Fragstein.
Mackrell was convicted Thursday of capital murder after testifying a day earlier that he had choked Fragstein when she refused to turn her car over to him outside a Conway mall and that her body went limp as he pulled her into the back seat.
“I just messed up very badly,” Mackrell testified. “I’ve had 27 months to take responsibility for what I’ve done and think about it,” he said.
Defense attorney Bill James Jr. said told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the verdict was disappointing and the defense is trying to convince the jury to spare Mackrell’s life.
“We’ve got a lot more fighting to do,” James said. “Our goal is no more death in this case.”
Prosecutors on Friday presented family members and friends of Fragstein who testified about the impact of her death on their lives.
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