On the night of March 14, 2020, 20-year-old Joshua Ezekiel Severns was found shot to death behind a restroom facility at Hollywood Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. An investigation revealed that Severns had left his home on foot to meet someone and had been directed to several different locations before ending up at the park.
Months later, on July 9, 2020, detectives from the Hot Springs Police Department arrested 18-year-old Payton Mann in connection with the homicide.
Mann was charged with Capital Murder and Aggravated Robbery and was held at the Garland County Detention Center without bond. The following day, a second suspect, 19-year-old Alisa Kay Andry, was taken into custody. Andry faced charges of First-Degree Murder and Aggravated Robbery.
Further details emerged that Andry had reportedly lured Severns to the park with the intention of robbing him, an encounter that ultimately turned fatal. She later pleaded guilty for her involvement in the incident. Joshua Severns, a 2019 graduate of Hot Springs High School, was remembered as an avid skateboarder, artist, and hiker.
