The State Supreme Court has set a February 5th execution date for Kenneth Kenley, who was convicted of the January, 1984 murder of Ronald Felts in Popular Bluff during a two-day crime spree. On the night of January 3rd, 1984, Kenley robbed a Poplar Bluff store after threatening the sales clerk with a pistol. He abducted a female customer and tried to sexually assault her in his vehicle, but she managed to escape. Kenley entered a Poplar Bluff bar later that night, said he was holding up the place, and opened fire – shooting patron Ronald Felts in the head, killing him instantly. Kenley then took money from the cash register and shot the bartender in the jaw. He also robbed a motel in Poplar Bluff that night and was captured the next morning in Conway, Arkansas, after carjacking a vehicle in a grocery storer parking lot.
