Brian Bliss Travis is no stranger to law enforcement officials in Polk County.
The 37-year-old suspect has spent about as much time in the 18th Circuit West Court as a court baliff.
Travis is being held in Polk County on drug charges and is expected to be arrested on multiple homicide accounts in the deaths of Bethany Jo Wester, Acelynn Wester, Reilly Scarbrough and Steven J. Payne.
With a record that started when he was 19, Travis has been found guilty of or pleaded guilty to multiple counts of felony breaking and entering, commercial burglary, burglary and forgery, misdemeanor theft of property charges and a myriad of “unclassified” offenses in nine different court appearances encompassing 19 separate convictions.
His record of catch and release in the “system” could be considered by some an indictment of the Arkansas judicial procedure.
Starting with a guilty plea on May 4, 1998, on felony breaking and entering, misdemeanor theft of property and two revocation charges that likely stemmed from juvenile convictions, Travis drew 48 month of suspended sentences through probation and a 24-month imposed sentence of the revocation charges.
Travis was back in court in October of that year for an August 25 forgery charge. He once again drew 36 months probation. according to information on Court Connect.
On Feb. 23, 1999, Travis returned to the courtroom to face charges from October 1998 that included another 60 months of suspended imposition of sentence for felony breaking or entering and misdemeanor. Those were listed as violation #3 and #4 on the court docket.
A separate docket for the same date (57CR-98-1455) shows guilty pleas for commercial burglary, breaking or entering and theft of property that occurred on Oct. 22, 1998. Once again, the sentencing information shows 108 months (suspended imposition) and 48 months of imposition.
A filing on Monday, Aug. 20, 2000, for two more commercial burglary and revocation of probation resulted in 192 months of imposed sentencing with 468 months of suspended imposition.
Another 156 months of imposed sentencing with 24 months of imposition of sentence was added to the fold in November 2000 on commercial burglary and revocation of parole.
On May 9, 2005 another guilty plea on Class C felony theft of property charges and further revocation dew another 156 months of imposed sentencing with 24 months suspended.
Another 120 months of imposed sentencing were tagged on Feb. 12, 2007 for another December 2006 commercial burglary. Another 24 months were imposed at the time for failure to appear charges.
On July 9, 2010 Travis entered a guilty plea to four counts of being a person (felon) in possession of firearms, residential burglary and theft of property charges. He was sentenced to 540 months on the firearms charges and 360 months each on the burglary and theft convictions, all imposed consecutively.
Granted, some of the court records are not completely clear on how many of the sentences included consecutive terms and concurrent terms, but Travis has racked up 1,828 months of imposed sentences, 698 months of sentences that had their imposition suspended and at least 84 months of probation.
Travis had been arrested and was already in jail for unrelated drug charges when he was developed as a suspect in the four Polk County murders last week.
Parole figures into the equation as well, but Travis has been sentenced to 152.3 years of imposed sentencing and was on the streets a long time from the August 2150 release date that number of months would represent had he served his time.
The actual “time served” by Travis for his 19 convictions is unknown at this time
Inside Fort Smith has sent an FOIA request to the Arkansas State Parole Board in an effort to get all records pertaining to Brian Bliss Travis.
Dennis W. McCaslin
Dennis McCaslin has been a longtime news and sports reporter for several media outlets in the Fort Smith area. He has also been a well known radio personality and play-by-play announcer for several years prior to joining InsideFortSmith.Com. He is the voice of the ArklahomaSports High School Game of the Week. E-mail: [email protected]
Patricia
May 1, 2017 at 3:07 pm
This happens way too often. Sebastian county has a domestic violence offender (3 times) running free, unless he has been picked up lately.The last should have been attempted murder on my daughter. His 4yr old son was there at the time. He did a few months in county jail and released on probation. Within several weeks he was arrested on hit and run. He pled guilty, sent to prison for about 4 months. PTR on previous charges was thrown out for a plea. He was out for 2 or 3 months, then a parole compliance check was done on him. Meth, marijuana,pills, scales and pipes were found. This happened on March 1, not sure if they found him yet. He is a ticking time bomb. It isn’t right that victims and their families go thru this. Our system needs change, and enforcement of the laws. Stop spatting their hands and letting them out to hurt or kill someone else.