A woman implicated in the 2020 killing of Cody Stradford, a Mountain Home man, has pled guilty to a reduced charge in Baxter County Circuit Court. Ashley Nicole Hendricks, 40, appeared Monday before Circuit Judge Andrew Bailey and admitted to hindering apprehension or prosecution in connection with the case.
Hendricks, whose addresses have been listed in Siloam Springs and Fayetteville, was initially charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping, and second-degree battery. Under the terms of a plea agreement, the murder and battery charges were dismissed outright, and the kidnapping charge was reduced.
Hendricks was sentenced to 120 months in prison, with the sentence suspended. Having already served 32 months in jail, she has 88 months remaining in the suspended sentence. Court records note that Hendricks has been given permission to transfer her probation supervision to Missouri. She also agreed to testify without subpoena in any future cases related to her codefendants.
Judge Bailey called Hendricks’s plea agreement “a fair resolution to the case,” emphasizing that her involvement stemmed from being “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Investigators allege Hendricks helped clean up evidence in a walkout basement where Stradford was brutally beaten in December 2020. According to reports, Ryan James Lindsey and Skylar Brazil assaulted Stradford extensively in the presence of Hendricks and another individual, Allison Cunningham, who reportedly did not intervene.
Stradford’s body was later found in his burned-out vehicle near Old Arkana Road south of Mountain Home. Investigators believe the car had been abandoned there for several days.
The cases against Hendricks’s codefendants are still ongoing. Lindsey was recently convicted on all charges and sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 15 years. He remains in a maximum-security unit and has filed an appeal. Brazil, facing multiple charges including rape in an unrelated Benton County case, is being held in the Benton County Jail on a $1 million bond. Cunningham has yet to appear in court.
Court records also show that separate felony cases against Hendricks in Benton and Madison counties have been closed.
The investigation into Stradford’s killing continues to unfold, with officials committed to pursuing justice for the victim and his family.