A 19-year-old from Arkansas, Anthony Lee Tabor, is set to face court proceedings following allegations of stabbing a man to death and fleeing the scene in a stolen vehicle. Tabor is facing charges of second-degree murder and theft in connection with an incident in April that resulted in the death of 34-year-old Michael James O’Malley.
The police were alerted to the incident when they received calls for a welfare check on a man found on the side of a road in Van Buren. The man, later identified as O’Malley, was already deceased with a stab wound to his chest. As the investigation progressed, detectives from the Van Buren Police Department discovered that several witnesses had seen O’Malley and Tabor in a physical altercation earlier that day.
Witnesses who observed the early morning fight on April 6 reported that Tabor had struck O’Malley, causing him to scream and fall backwards. One witness recounted that Tabor, after allegedly striking O’Malley, returned to the vehicle he had arrived in, which was reportedly stolen from Little Rock, approximately 150 miles southeast of Van Buren. Tabor was heard shouting, “I’m a real deal killa!” before driving away.
The altercation was reported to 911 by a witness, with another voice in the background of the call stating, “he just stabbed that dude.” Robert Snider, another witness, described the fight to local CBS affiliate KSFM, stating that the two men were engaged in a serious fight, with one man slamming the other’s head into the curb. Snider had attempted to intervene and separate the two men after witnessing the fight while driving.
The affidavit revealed that O’Malley’s body was discovered at 11:20 a.m. on April 6. The Arkansas State Crime Lab medical examiner confirmed the cause of death as a stab wound to the chest and ruled the manner of death as homicide. The vehicle Tabor allegedly used to flee the scene was later found at his apartment complex, along with a knife near his apartment.
According to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Tabor was already in custody on the theft charge when he was charged with O’Malley’s murder. He is currently being held at the Crawford County Detention Center on a $255,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.