CONWAY, Ark — Testimony continued Monday in the trial for a man accused of kidnapping and killing a Faulkner County woman in July 2018.
Tacori Mackrell, 20, is charged with capital murder, kidnapping, robbery, and theft of property in connection with the death of Elvia Fragstein.
Mackrell's cousin, 18-year-old Robert Smith III is also charged in the case. His trial is scheduled for November.
Fragstein was last seen alive at the Conway Commons shopping center on July 7, 2018. A farmer found her body in rural Jefferson County several days later.
On Monday, prosecutors called two witnesses to the stand, both of them investigators in the case. Several hours of interview audio was also played for the jury.
In a July 15, 2018 recording, Mackrell, who is from Pine Bluff, told investigators that he had never been to Conway.
Mackrell's story changed after investigators showed him cell phone pings that placed him there on July 7.
He was also reportedly shown surveillance photos from the shopping center, where he and Smith are seen inside Target, looking through the window of The Children's Place, and outside TJ Maxx in the moments before Fragstein disappeared from the store.
Mackrell admitted he and Smith were at the shopping center, but denied any wrongdoing that day.
"I don't have nothing to do with no stolen car," Mackrell told investigators during the interview.
When asked why his cell phone pinged in the area of Interstate 530 between Little Rock and Pine Bluff at the same time a state trooper ran Fragstein's tag there, Mackrell said he didn't know.
On the following day, Mackrell requested to speak with Faulkner County Sheriff's Office Lt. Chad Wooley from his holding cell in the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.
Conway Police Detective Brian Williams, who took the stand Monday afternoon, was present for the conversation and participated in the interview that followed.
While on the stand, Williams said Mackrell was difficult to interview that day because he was so emotional. He could be heard in recordings crying and breathing heavily.
During the interview, Mackrell told Wooley and Williams that a white man with a gun forced him and his cousin to abduct Fragstein outside TJ Maxx.
Mackrell's story about what happened to the 72-year-old and her car was inconsistent throughout that interview.
He told investigators Fragstein was beaten up in her car and that she stopped making noise near "the big rocks" on Interstate 530 south of Little Rock.
The trial is set to resume Tuesday at 9 a.m.
Prosecutors are expected to rest their case on Tuesday.
As defense attorney Jeff Rosenzweig discussed the witnesses he plans to call, he noted that Tacori Mackrell has the right to testify, suggesting that he could possibly take the stand.