Jim Bolt
James W. Bolt will be staying in jail after a federal court hearing Wednesday in which an FBI agent said the Rogers businessman was suspected of being an accessory to a 2011 murder in southwest Missouri.
Bolt, 60, has been held in the Benton County jail since his arrest last week on a federal criminal complaint alleging 12 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering — white collar crimes for which pre-trial release is routine.
But at the detention hearing in Fayetteville before U.S. Magistrate Erin Setser, FBI Special Agent Robert Cessario testified that Bolt was also being investigated for a possible connection to the Feb. 20, 2011, murder of Jack McCain, 67, of Rogers.
Fred Bremer, 39, of Rogers was arrested last month and charged in McDonald County, Mo., with first-degree murder. He allegedly drove McCain to a site near Powell, Mo., where he was shot repeatedly and left dead beside Gobbler’s Knob Road.
Bolt has not been charged in the McCain case. Cessario said the FBI had found on Bolt’s computer recorded phone calls between Bremer, Bolt and McCain made near the time of McCain’s murder. A news release about the detention hearing, issued by the U.S. Attorney’s office, added that, according to testimony at the hearing, “Bolt cooperated with a man [Bremer] accused of murder in McDonald County, Missouri to concoct an alibi for the man.”
Evidence that Bolt might flee the area if released was also presented, including a statement by Bremer.
As of Wednesday afternoon, no trial had been scheduled in the fraud case against Bolt, who has not entered a plea to the charges.
Sign up for Daily E-news
