Conway man pleads guilty to killing stepfather, police officer sentenced to 20 years in prison

A Conway man pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for a 2020 shooting that resulted in the death of his stepfather, a 38-year veteran of the Conway police department.

Eric Kwajae-Mikhail Faulk, 24, was sentenced to 20 years in prison without the possibility of parole for the crime.

On March 5, 2020, Faulk’s mother called 911 to report that her son had been “acting strange,” a press release said. Police officers later found James Odell Cochran, his stepfather, dead in a shed behind the home

Cochran had sustained multiple gunshots and Faulk had fled the scene in the victim’s vehicle, according to a press release.

The crime was domestic in nature, and unrelated to Cochran’s service in the police department, according to assistant solicitor Christopher Helms.

“The most tragic part about this case was that Mr. Cochran served the community in a dangerous capacity for almost 40 years and simultaneously raised the defendant like his own son,” Helms, who prosecuted the case, said in a release. “There does not appear to be any rational explanation for what the defendant did here.”

Close witnesses told responding officers that the defendant “could be seen walking the street, while talking to himself and sometimes carrying a weapon in the days leading up to the murder,” the release says.

A court-ordered evaluation found him competent to stand trial.

This story was originally published November 9, 2022 at 4:12 PM.