Police Say 18-Year-Old Fatally Assaulted Man in Arkansas With Hammer and Rocks, Alleging Victim Was Trying to ‘Seduce Him’

An 18-year-old man in Arkansas has been arrested after he allegedly killed an older man using a hammer and rocks claiming the man was trying to “seduce him,” according to authorities.

On May 17, the Independence County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a female claiming someone was killed and the victim’s 2009 Nissan Murano was missing, KAIT-TV reported. Officials tried to notify and locate the owner of the vehicle in question, but failed.

Deputies then determined Matthew Speakman got into an accident the previous day in the missing vehicle, KAIT-TV reported.

Officers responded to the home and found a deceased male, identified as 49-year-old Jason Anderson, in a bathtub with the water still running. The victim sustained visible head injuries, officials said.

Deputies searched the home and noticed blood on the shower wall and “bloody shoe prints on the floor of the living area coming from the bathroom area,” KAIT-TV stated. Officers recovered a hammer, hammer handle and three large rocks inside the bathtub.

Police would talk with Speakman later that afternoon and discovered a “methamphetamine smoking device with residue” in his possession. Officers examined his shoes for contraband and noticed a similarity with the “pattern of the bloody shoe prints found inside the residence of the deceased,” KAIT-TV stated.

Speakman was taken to the sheriff’s office for questioning, where he admitted to having the methamphetamine smoking device, as well as the missing vehicle, authorities said.

When confronted about the bloody shoe prints, Speakman reportedly said, “Y’all need the truth, don’t y’all?” and stated the victim was “nude trying to seduce him into sex,” according to KAIT-TV.

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Speakman said he then found the hammer on a coffee table and allegedly hit Anderson “in the head at least four times and one time with a large set of rocks,” officials said.

He said the victim then “crawled to the bathtub,” where Speakman continued to beat him, authorities said.

Speakman told police he “continued to strike him in fear that he would try to have sex with him anyways,” KAIT-TV reported. He said he didn’t call for help because he was “afraid of jail and being in trouble,” so he left the home in Anderson’s vehicle.

Speakman was arrested on June 5 and charged with first-degree murder, theft of property and possession of drug paraphernalia, authorities said. He is being held on a $1 million bond.