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A Marion County circuit judge revoked Steven Lawrence Manson Sr.’s bond on Aug. 5 and ordered him held without bond until a hearing this month. As of Tuesday, the 56-year-old Yellville man had not been taken into custody.
Circuit Judge Andrew S. Bailey signed the order at 11:38 a.m. that day in case 45CR-26-14. It directs the Marion County circuit clerk to issue a warrant for Manson’s arrest and detention and sets his bond at none pending further hearing. The order also instructs the Marion County sheriff to use all diligence in serving it.
The clerk issued the warrant the same day. It lists no bond to collect and carries warrant number 45CI-26-6.
The Observer checked the Marion County jail roster on Tuesday. Manson was not listed. Neighbors who live near the family property on County Road 8054 also told the Observer he had not been picked up.
Those neighbors are not being named. The Observer has withheld their identities throughout its coverage of this case because members of the Manson family have threatened them.
While the warrant has gone unserved, an account offering household goods for sale has stayed active online.
A Facebook Marketplace seller account under the name Mari Vest listed six items for sale as of Tuesday morning, all of them placed in Yellville. They include a rabbit cage, a pair of parrot cages, a ceiling fan, a welding helmet and a boxed wire welder. The account’s profile says it joined Facebook in 2022.
The rabbit cage listing was posted about five days before the Observer reviewed it. That places it on or about Aug. 6, the day after Bailey signed the revocation order.
Two people familiar with the family told the Observer the account belongs to Manson Sr. All six listings show the same approximate location, a circle covering the area of the Manson property on County Road 8054. Facebook blurs seller locations by design, so the circle marks a general area rather than an address.
The Observer found no record of a person named Mari Vest living in the area.
One neighbor said a man came to her looking for the Manson home last week because he had arranged to buy kayaks from Manson Sr. The man left before the Observer could reach him. No kayak listing was active on the account when the Observer reviewed it Tuesday.
The same neighbor said Manson Sr. has been leaving the area by rideshare.
Bailey’s order sets a hearing for Manson at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18, at the Marion County Courthouse. That is the same morning his son, Steven Michael Manson Jr., is scheduled for a status hearing across six separate criminal cases.
Manson Sr. is charged in 45CR-26-14 with conspiracy to commit rape, a Class Y felony, along with first-degree terroristic threatening, a Class D felony, and coercion, a Class A misdemeanor. All three charges carry a violation date of March 7, 2026. He is charged with conspiracy, not with committing the rape himself.
The charges stem from the reported rape of an 18-year-old woman at the County Road 8054 residence. She escaped to a neighbor’s home and reported the assault to the Marion County Sheriff’s Department on March 7, according to a probable cause affidavit signed March 12 by MCSO Criminal Investigator Jarrod D. Poley.
Manson Jr. and Dezarae Shae-Lynn Manson were also charged in connection with that report. Each of the three defendants has a separate case number. They are not being tried together.
The bond revocation followed a raid on the Manson property.
Deputies executed a search warrant at the residence on the morning of July 30 and arrested Manson Sr. According to a probable cause affidavit filed by MCSO Lt. Silas Gibson, investigators seized roughly 8.71 pounds of suspected marijuana from a black tote, packaged in about 22 containers and bags in a manner consistent with sale and delivery. They also seized three handguns from a safe.
Manson faced new charges of possession of marijuana with the purpose to deliver, a Class C felony, and three counts of possession of a firearm by certain persons, a Class B felony, along with a habitual offender enhancement. Circuit Judge Johnnie Copeland set that bond at $50,000. Manson posted it and was released the same day.
The conditions attached to that release were narrow.
The bond form required Manson to appear as notified, to carry no firearm or dangerous weapon, to use no controlled substances outside a prescription and no intoxicating beverages, and to pay for GPS monitoring. It provided that his bond would be revoked on a positive drug test.
Two standard boxes on the form were left unchecked. One would have barred him from contact with victims or witnesses. The other would have required him to commit no offense punishable by imprisonment.
No travel restriction was imposed.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Russo moved to revoke the March bond on the morning of Aug. 5, filing on behalf of Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge. The motion cited Rule 9.6 of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure, which allows a court to revoke release when a defendant is charged with a felony while awaiting trial.
The motion noted that Manson faces 10 to 40 years or life without parole if convicted on the Class Y count. It also stated that law enforcement had documented his recent travel to Missouri and Illinois. Prosecutors asked the court to impose an ankle monitor and a condition barring him from leaving Arkansas if any new bond were set.
Bailey granted the revocation roughly two hours later.
Manson Sr. has no attorney of record. Little Rock attorney Eugene P. Clifford, who represented all three defendants, moved to withdraw on July 24, citing a conflict of interest under Rule 1.7 of the Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct. Bailey entered orders relieving him in early August.
Those orders give each defendant 30 days to retain new counsel. After that window, the court may appoint an attorney from the Marion County Public Defender’s Office. The language is permissive, not automatic.
Manson Sr. also has a status hearing scheduled for Oct. 13 in the same case.
None of the allegations against Manson Sr. have been proven in court. He is presumed innocent unless and until convicted.
