Arkansas Senator Linda Collins-Smith's ex-aide pleads guilty: 'I intentionally killed her and hid the body'
In a shocking twist, Rebecca Lynn O'Donnell who was arrested in 2019 for the murder of former Arkansas State Senator Linda Collins-Smith has pleaded guilty on Thursday, August 6. The close friend and aide of Collins pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse.
Accepting a plea deal in the stabbing death of the politician, the former employee of Collins told a judge at Randolph County court: “I went to Linda's house, and I intentionally killed her and then hid the body.” Besides, O'Donnell also pleaded "no contest" to two counts of solicitation to commit capital murder in another county. According to an earlier report, she while being in jail, devised a plan to hire other prisoners to get killed Collins' ex-husband and his new wife, along with a judge and prosecutor who was formerly assigned to her case. The "no contest" pleas will also be reportedly treated as guilty pleas.
The mutilated body of Collins was found by her son, Butch Smith, on June 4, 2019, in Pocahontas, Arkansas. Ten days later the grisly discovery, O'Donnell was arrested and charged with capital murder, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence at the time. "I was the one that found my mother's body on June 4th 2019 at her home. She was lying face down wrapped in one of my old comforters and shoved under a tarp in her driveway. I will never not be able to see that picture burned into my brain,” Smith said in a statement on Thursday.
Though the motive behind the murder is still not clear, Collins’ son said that he believed O'Donnell was stealing money from his mother and when she was confronted, she stabbed her to death. While Collins' daughter said in another statement: “Today our family has found swift justice by way of a plea deal. No amount of punishment will ever fill that void that Rebecca O'Donnell made in our lives the day she killed our mother. Today we find some shred of peace that O'Donnell will be put away in prison for a very long time, unable to hurt anyone else."
The statement added: “Today we find some shred of peace that Rebecca O'Donnell will be put away in prison for a very long time unable to hurt anyone else. If my Mother was here today I have no doubt that she would quote the Bible and tell us that we can find peace in God."
O'Donnell's fiancé Tim Loggains also released a statement that read, “Initially, for various reasons, I believed with all my heart that Becky was innocent. No one wants to believe anyone close to them is capable of doing something so heinous. My heart at that time would not let me believe what I later learned to be true – that Becky murdered Linda. That realization was one of the most difficult of my life. To accept that I lived with someone so deviant, someone who could not only take a life but the life of someone who helped her in so many ways, without any indication of the darkness in her heart, was heartbreaking."
After the plea deal, O'Donnell will now likely serve a total of 54 years in jail. She will also be eligible for parole. "This is good for the Collins' family, they'll be able to move on," Defense attorney Lee Short said.