Joe Newton Kagebein (1955–1980)

Joe Newton Kagebein of DeWitt (Arkansas County) was sentenced to be executed at age fifteen after being convicted of first-degree murder.

Joe Newton Kagebein was born in Globe, Arizona, on August 30, 1955, to Newton F. Kagebein and Laurine Kagebein. His parents divorced when Kagebein was six but remarried and moved to DeWitt when he was seven. They moved back to Arizona when he was in the fifth grade. Kagebein returned to DeWitt in 1970 to live with his grandmother and attend DeWitt High School.

On November 7, 1970, Kagebein, his cousin Larry L. Mannis (age seventeen), and friends Teddy R. Kittler and Bennie R. West (both sixteen) were driving around Arkansas County when Mannis tried to buy beer at a Gillett (Arkansas County) liquor store but was turned away because he was underage. Though Kagebein later said that he was asleep in the car for much of the time, the other three encountered Jimmy Wayne Wampler—a twenty-seven-year-old rice farmer from Fair Oaks (Cross County) who had been heading to deer camp near Gillett—who they said purchased beer for them in return for sexual favors.

The three youths said they allowed Wampler to perform sex acts on them, but he became angry afterward, and they fought. According to the teens’ account, Kagebein woke up and hit Wampler with a gun to keep him away from his friends, and Kittler shot Wampler with a shotgun. All but Kittler then drove to the DeWitt police station and told officers there had been “a killing.” West took officers to a field in the Little Texas community, where they found “the body was nude, except for cowboy boots and torn women’s panties on the thigh of the right leg and a woman’s nightgown under his head and draped across the left side of his head where the shotgun pellets struck.” All four youths were questioned early on the morning of November 8 and charged with first-degree murder.

The four were to be tried together in June 1971, but a mistrial was declared after five days of questioning around 340 potential jurors failed to seat a jury. The four were to be tried together again, but on August 2, 1971, Special Judge John S. Mosby of Lepanto (Poinsett County) granted a motion for Kagebein to be tried alone. The trial began two days later, with defense attorney J. W. Moncrief of Stuttgart (Arkansas County) maintaining that Wampler bought the boys beer “as an inducement to commit homosexual acts with him,” while Prosecutor Sam Weems of Des Arc (Prairie County) held that the four youths “accosted him along the way in an attempt to rob him,” and then, after beating and killing him, “a woman’s nightgown was thrown across his face and a pair of women’s panties was put on the body to make it look like something it wasn’t.” The county sheriff said that Wampler had been tortured.

Around 400 spectators attended the trial at which Kagebein testified in his own defense. The jury on August 6 “deliberated about two hours before returning a verdict of guilty. Because the jury made no recommendation, under Arkansas law the death penalty is automatic,” the Arkansas Gazette reported. Judge Mosby on August 10 sentenced the fifteen-year-old to be executed on October 11, 1971, and “Kagebein…turned pale and was visibly shaking when Mosby pronounced the sentence.” Governor Dale Bumpers, however, granted a stay of execution to allow Kagebein’s attorneys to appeal the conviction.

Kagebein was taken to Cummins Prison Farm, where he was housed in the maximum-security unit because Arkansas no longer had a death row after Governor Winthrop Rockefeller commuted the sentences of all of the condemned men in late 1970. The case drew international attention because of Kagebein’s age.

The other boys also received prison sentences. Kittler was sentenced to life in prison after his conviction in November 1971. West was convicted of second-degree murder in 1973 and sentenced to twenty-one years in prison. Mannis pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1974 and also received a twenty-one-year sentence.

Kagebein’s death penalty was essentially rendered moot when the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1972 ruling in Furman v. Georgia “effectively suspended capital punishment laws throughout the United States.”

H. William Allen of Little Rock (Pulaski County) represented Kagebein on appeal and filed a 120-page brief with the Arkansas Supreme Court in April 1972, alleging errors in the trial and investigation. On July 9, 1973, the court reversed Kagebein’s first-degree murder conviction and ordered a new trial. Special Chief Justice John C. Deacon wrote the reversal “on the ground that statements made by others in Kagebein’s presence that linked him to the crime and were not denied by him should not have been admitted as testimony.” The court “also cited several other errors in the trial to be considered on retrial.” Kagebein was released on $25,000 bond in August 1973.

He was tried again in January 1974 in a bench trial before Judge Andrew Ponder of Newport (Jackson County), who found him guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced him to twenty-one years in prison with twelve years suspended, which an Arkansas Gazette reporter wrote “theoretically…would make Kagebein…eligible for parole in three years.” Kagebein said, “I’m glad of what the judge did. I thought it was a fair ruling,” while lawyer Allen stated that “it’s a hell of a lot better than life in prison.”

Kagebein was sent to the Tucker Prison Farm to serve his new sentence, where the warden described him as a model prisoner. His first two bids for parole were rejected after Wampler’s widow and father attended the hearings and spoke against his release. In May 1977, a third hearing was held without the victim’s family members present, and Kagebein was granted parole.

Joe Kagebein moved back to Arizona, “where he had spent much of his childhood,” and married Laura Denise Broom. On February 9, 1980, he was killed in Glendale, Arizona, when his motorcycle “ran into the side of a trailer truck as it was pulling out of a private driveway.” He is buried in DeWitt’s Thompson Cemetery.

For additional information:
“Arkansan Sentenced to Death at 15 Killed in Motorcycle Crash.” Arkansas Gazette, February 15, 1980, p. 6A.

“Arkansas Youth Looks to Freedom.” New York Times, January 13, 1974, p. 23. Online at https://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/13/archives/arkansas-youth-looks-to-freedom-found-in-nightgown.html (accessed August 19, 2026).

“DeWitt Policeman Claims One of 4 Suspects Confessed.” Arkansas Democrat, August 4, 1971, p. 8A.

“DeWitt Youth Gets Death.” Arkansas Gazette, August 7, 1971, pp. 1A, 2A.

Jordan, Wayne. “Farmer’s Body ‘Mutilated,’ Police Say at Murder Trial.” Arkansas Gazette, August 5, 1971, p. 15A.

———. “‘I Saw Him Die,’ Youth, 15, Says of Slain Rice Farmer.” Arkansas Gazette, August 6, 1971, p. 2A.

———. “Lawyers Match Shout in Trial of DeWitt 4.” Arkansas Gazette, June 10, 1971, p. 3A.

———. “Murder Trial of Youths Ends in Mistrial.” Arkansas Gazette, June 12, 1971, pp. 1A, 2A.

———. “Youth, 15, ‘Plotted’ Farmer’s Slaying, Prosecutor Says.” Arkansas Gazette, August 4, 1971, p. 1B.

“Kagebein Gets Death Sentence in Shooting.” Arkansas Gazette, August 11, 1971, p. 1B.

“Kagebein Lawyer Lists Alleged Errors.” Arkansas Gazette, April 7, 1972, p. 22B.

Hamburger, Tom. “Parole Denied Kagebein, 2d Inmate in Wampler Case.” Arkansas Gazette, December 19, 1976, p. 24A.

“High Court Voids Youth’s Conviction in 1970 Slaying.” Arkansas Democrat, July 9, 1973, p. 1A.

“Joe Kagebein Freed on Bond after Conviction Overturned.” Arkansas Gazette, August 24, 1973, p. 1B.

“Judge Asked to Waive Jury for Kagebein.” Arkansas Gazette, December 22, 1973, p. 18A.

“Kagebein Trial Opens at DeWitt.” Arkansas Democrat, January 7, 1974, p. 3B.

Lancaster, Bill. “Joe Kagebein Wins Parole on Third Try.” Arkansas Gazette, June 1, 1977, pp. 1A, 2A.

———. “Kagebein Gets 9-year Term for Slaying,” Arkansas Gazette, January 8, 1974, pp. 1A, 2A.

———. “Kagebein Parole Denied after Plea by Victim’s Kin.” Arkansas Gazette, May 30, 1976, p. 24A.

Reed, Roy. “Country’s Youngest Condemned Prisoner Waits at Ease.” New York Times, January 22, 1972, p. 14. Online at https://www.nytimes.com/1972/01/22/archives/countrys-youngest-condemned-prisoner-waits-at-ease.html (accessed August 19, 2026).

Shiras, Ginger. “Youngest Inmate on ‘Death Row’ Turns 16; Doesn’t Like ‘Getting Old.’” Arkansas Gazette, September 4, 1971, pp. 1A, 2A.

“State to Seek Death Penalty.” Arkansas Democrat, June 7, 1971, p. 8A.

Tirey, Brenda. “Board Denies Parole to Joe Kagebein.” Arkansas Democrat, May 30, 1976, p. 4A.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas