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A former Arkansas district judge convicted of drug charges has been sentenced in an unrelated mail fraud case involving American Indian artifacts.

Bob Castleman, who was a judge in Pocahontas over a decade ago, has been sentenced to 21 months in prison and must pay nearly $16,800 in restitution.

Castleman had claimed to an insurance company in 2012 that Native American arrowheads were stolen from his residence, but they were later found by the FBI in 2013, The Jonesboro Sun reported.

Castleman’s sentence will run concurrently with a 40-year prison term he received in late 2013 following his conviction of conspiracy to make meth and maintaining a drug premises.

Prosecutors had accused Castleman of killing co-defendant, Travis Perkins, who had agreed to testify against him in the drug case as part of a planned plea deal. Castleman’s son had testified in that trial, saying that his father fatally shot Perkins.

Castleman wasn’t charged in the Perkins’ shooting death when he was sentenced last year, but a U.S. district judge said prosecutors had done a satisfactory job linking Castleman to it.

Castleman and his son once were imprisoned for mailing a venomous snake to a man. They pleaded guilty in 2004 to mailing a live copperhead snake to someone who had purchased an all-terrain vehicle from the younger Castleman, claiming the vehicle needed to be repaired.

Topics Legislation Fraud