Marion County man sentenced to 35 years for 2 deaths

YELLVILLE, Ark. (AP) — A jury in northern Arkansas has convicted a Yellville man for last year’s shooting deaths of his uncle and grandfather.

Prosecutors had charged Donald Steven Beckwith Jr. with first-degree murder for the Sept. 1 deaths of his uncle, David DeWayne White, and his grandfather, William Henry White. But a jury on Wednesday convicted Beckwith of manslaughter and second-degree murder instead.

The Baxter Bulletin reports that Beckwith was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Beckwith had told police that he shot his uncle after a fight and that he accidentally shot his grandfather, who had tried to intervene.