TEXARKANA, Ark. -- A father was sentenced to 46 years in prison Tuesday in the 2019 beating death of his 3-year-old daughter.
Everette John Cawley, 26, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of permitting the abuse of a minor at a hearing Tuesday morning before Circuit Judge Brent Haltom in Miller County. McKenna Faith Belcher, 30, the stepmother of McKinley Cawley, is currently serving a life term for murder in the death.
Belcher used a wooden bed slat and steel-toed boots to cause the injuries to McKinley that ended her life in April 2019. Cawley allowed the abuse to occur and took steps to conceal it from law enforcement, according to probable cause affidavits.
Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell noted that members of McKinley's family were present in the courtroom Tuesday. At Belcher's plea hearing in May 2021, Mitchell recounted that McKinley was flown via helicopter from a Texarkana emergency room to a hospital in Little Rock the morning of April 2, 2019. Mitchell noted that McKinley was found to have suffered bruising all over her small body as well as severe internal and head injuries from which she would die later the same day.
Belcher threw, kicked, stomped and beat McKinley in the days and hours before her death, while Cawley failed to protect her. McKinley's head had been shaved before she was brought to the hospital and clumps of hair were found in the couple's Texarkana, Arkansas, duplex and in McKinley's underwear. Investigators with the Texarkana Arkansas Police Department concluded that McKinley's head was shaved to conceal that clumps of her hair had been yanked from her scalp.
External injuries similar to those seen on McKinley were found on her 2-year-old brother's face, torso and legs, which doctors hypothesized were caused by a "blunt type instrument/object" and are described as bruising all along his face and limbs. Cawley failed to protect the boy, as well.
Cawley was sentenced to 40 years for murder and six years on each of two counts of permitting the abuse of a minor. The permitting abuse charges will run concurrently to one another but consecutively to the 40-year murder sentence.
Cawley's lawyer, Jeff Harrelson of Texarkana, said that it is his "frank opinion that he would have been convicted" on all counts if the case was presented to a jury. Belcher was initially charged with capital murder and entered a plea last year to first-degree murder with a life sentence that allowed her to avoid the death penalty.
Cawley was initially charged with accomplice capital murder but entered a plea Tuesday to first-degree murder.
When asked by Haltom, Cawley agreed that he would likely be found guilty. He declined to make any other statements in court Tuesday.
Cawley received credit toward his sentence for the 1,155 days he has spent in jail since his arrest in 2019.
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