Duck hearing today, still no decision on bond reduction

Deputy prosecuting attorney Joe Graham presented Garland County’s case against bond reduction for the alleged murderer of Hot Springs Village Police dispatcher Dawna Natzke, Kevin Conway Duck. Duck’s bond is currently $250,000 in Garland County and $25,000 in Hot Spring County.

There were two fact witnesses in this matter, Corporal Michael Wright with the Garland County Sheriff’s Department and Luther Duck, father of the accused. Wright testified as to first meeting Duck when he was extradited from Louisiana on a probation violation in 2012. Wright was assigned to the case on December 31, 2011 when Natzke’s body was found in the Ouachita National Forest area. She had been brutally beaten and drowned.

Wright added, Duck was recently arrested in Burlington, Colorado for the alleged murder of Natzke but was also in violation of his probation out of Hot Spring County. He testified Duck is using a Louisiana drivers’ license with a bogus Maurice, Louisiana address. Vermillion Parish officials checked the address and said there is no such address.

Luther Duck testified that Kevin Conway Duck has three children with no parental rights at all on two of the children and he is only allowed to see the third child with adult supervision. Duck’s parents share custody of the third child.

Duck’s attorneys, Clay T. Janske and Brian Johnson, argued they needed Duck out of prison and working on pipeline, a lucrative job, in which the funds would be needed to mount his defense in the murder case. They are asking his Garland County bond be reduced to $50,000.

Judge John Homer Wright took the matter under advisement and will issue a written decision in the next few days.