By Ray King
Prosecutors have filed formal charges against a Pine Bluff man accused of shooting two people Monday, resulting in the death of one of them and injuries to the second.
Matthew Ferry, 29, was taken into custody in Rogers, Arkansas Thursday after police received a tip as to his location, and brought back to Pine Bluff where he made his first court appearance Friday morning in Pine Bluff District Court.
District Judge John Kearney told Ferry that he had been charged with two counts of felony criminal activity and then read the allegations to Ferry.
According to a probable cause affidavit by Detective Jason Boykin, at about 6:25 p.m. Monday, police were sent to 202 Grider Field Ladd Road where they found Samuel Stenberg, 39, covered with blood and standing outside a building. Stenberg told the first office that Ferry was responsible. Stenberg had been shot several times and was taken to Jefferson Regional Hospital.
When police entered the building, they found Courtney Clary, 33, bleeding from a wound to the head. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Police found multiple nine-millimeter shell casings at the scene, including one next to Clary’s body.
Ferry was also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm because of a prior conviction for second-degree battery and will be held without bond at the adult detention center, and prosecutors have added a firearms enhancement to the allegations, meaning if he is convicted, an additional sentence of up to 15 years in prison is possible, with that sentence running consecutively, or after he serves his initial sentence.
