KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana |Affidavit: He beat him with an ashtray and stabbed him with a knife

Affidavit: He beat him with an ashtray and stabbed him with a knife

It was allegedly a murder for hire in McNeil Arkansas. Tonight you will hear the probable cause police used to arrest two people they claim killed the mayor of the small south Arkansas town.

Fifty-one year old Nenna Bolton seemed to be the only one in shock when agents arrested her Tuesday. They did so, only after arresting twenty-eight year old Shaunte Smith.

"It's not that we're keeping anything, we don't know." That was a teary eyed Nenna Bolton during an interview with News 12 the day after her grandfather was found dead.

In a sworn affidavit, obtained by News 12, Smith alleges he and Bolton conspired to kill her grandfather, the eighty-three year old mayor of McNeil Arkansas, Ralph Ward.

"My grandfather was with me. I let him off at his house, after I took him to get ice cream," says Bolton. She made those comments to News 12 reporter David Begnaud, who was at Bolton's home when police arrested her on a charge of murder.

The statement she made to Begnaud, according to authorities, is true. Here is what they say she left out. As stated in the affidavit, "Smith stated that Bolton left the window unlocked on Mister Wards house to allow him access inside.

Detectives say Boltons trip to get ice cream gave Smith time to get inside. There, police say he waited, until Bolton arrived back at home, and Ward entered alone.

"Smith stated that once Mister Ward was inside he beat him with an ashtray and stabbed him with a knife."

"Nenna, did you hurt him at all," asked Begnaud as she's being loaded into a police car on Tuesday.

"My sister in law found him, I never did get out of the car," responded Bolton.

That, prosecutors say, was part of the plan; let them do the deal, and someone else find him dead.

"It's a bigger loss for us," said Bolton the day after Ward's murder, "because he stood behind us no matter what. He was always there for his family."

In the end, prosecutors say a member of his own family, did him in.