Kevin Altom underwent extensive treatment after the 2024 attack, while Rebecca Mryglod remained jailed until her August 2026 plea.
DRASCO, Ark. — The emergency call came from the woman who said she had fired the shots. By the time Cleburne County deputies reached the rural Arkansas home, Kevin Altom had suffered 17 gunshot wounds but was still alive, beginning a medical ordeal that would outlast the criminal investigation’s first hours.
Nearly two years after the Nov. 8, 2024, shooting, the case ended with a guilty plea and a 20-year prison sentence for Rebecca Jane Mryglod, 38. Mryglod pleaded guilty Aug. 18, 2026, in Cleburne County Circuit Court to first-degree domestic battery. Judge Tim Weaver sentenced her to 240 months in the Arkansas Division of Correction and credited her with 648 days already served. The disposition replaced the uncertainty of a pending case with a conviction on a single negotiated felony count.
The first documented concern on the morning of the shooting was whether Altom would survive. Reports based on a Cleburne County Sheriff’s Office incident record said a woman called 911 while crying and requested an ambulance before saying she had shot someone. Deputies arriving at the Altom Road home encountered Altom with multiple wounds. Accounts based on the arrest affidavit described him in severe pain as emergency personnel prepared to transport him for treatment. Mryglod was also at the property, and investigators said she admitted responsibility for the shooting.
Altom, who was 43 at the time according to reporting based on the incident record, was flown to a hospital in critical condition. Subsequent reports said he had been shot 17 times and underwent extensive surgeries. One round injured his colon, leading to an infection that required further treatment. Despite the number and seriousness of his wounds, Altom survived. The publicly available reports reviewed for this story do not provide a detailed account of his present medical condition or say whether he continues to experience complications from the shooting.
Mryglod’s behavior in the minutes after the gunfire became part of the sheriff’s account. Investigators said she stood outside the home crying, breathing rapidly and asking whether Altom was going to die. Reports said she had blood on her hands and clothes. One deputy told her he could hear Altom yelling and took that as an encouraging sign. The exchange, described in later reporting from the incident record, occurred before detectives had completed their evidence collection or questioned Mryglod formally about what had happened inside.
The gun itself was not found in Mryglod’s hands. Authorities said she told them she had walked down the driveway after the shooting, called 911 and thrown the weapon into nearby weeds. Deputies later found a black KelTec .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol about 100 yards from the residence. Investigators reported that the magazine was empty and the slide was locked back. Six cartridge casings were recovered inside the home, while additional .22-caliber ammunition and hearing protection were reported among items associated with Mryglod.
Those scene details told investigators what was present after the shooting, but Mryglod’s later interview supplied the account of how the morning began. She told detectives she had bought the pistol only three days earlier and had been target practicing. She said she woke at about 5 a.m. on Nov. 8, got the gun and ammunition from her vehicle and then went back to her morning routine. That routine included putting her daughter on a school bus before she returned inside the residence where Altom was sitting.
According to the arrest affidavit, Mryglod asked Altom whether he planned to go to work. As he stood from the couch, she told investigators, she pointed the pistol and started firing. The affidavit did not describe the gunfire as an accidental discharge. It recorded Mryglod’s own explanation of the relationship and her reasons in terms investigators attributed directly to her, including her repeated reference to Altom’s “spiritual demons.” Publicly reported court documents do not provide an independent definition or diagnosis associated with that phrase.
Mryglod told investigators that she and Altom had previously split up but that she had moved back into the home because she wanted to help him with those perceived struggles. She then described being unwilling to continue doing so. Investigators treated her statements, the recovered firearm, the scene evidence and Altom’s wounds as parts of the case they presented after her arrest. The affidavits and incident reports summarized what investigators said they learned; the later guilty plea, rather than the arrest paperwork alone, supplied the final criminal conviction.
The initial case was broader than the offense on which Mryglod was ultimately sentenced. Authorities arrested her on allegations that included attempted first-degree murder, first-degree domestic battery and simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms. Investigators reported finding packages or containers of marijuana inside the residence in addition to evidence from the shooting. Sheriff’s booking information listed serious charges and a $700,000 bond after her November 2024 arrest.
The case remained unresolved for more than 21 months. Mryglod stayed in custody during that period, according to the jail-credit figure later entered in the sentencing order. By August 2026, prosecutors and the defense had negotiated a plea. Local reports said the attempted-murder allegation was no longer the offense being pursued to judgment and that other counts, including a separate domestic-battery count and the simultaneous-possession allegation, were dismissed or nolle prossed.
The conviction that remained was first-degree domestic battery. Arkansas law generally classifies that offense as a Class B felony, although different circumstances can raise the classification. For a Class B felony, state law authorizes five to 20 years of imprisonment. The 240-month term Weaver imposed is 20 years, placing Mryglod’s sentence at the top of that statutory range for the classification reported in her case. Her 648 days in pretrial custody are to be credited against the sentence as ordered by the court.
The sentencing also changed the legal posture of the shooting. For most of the period after Altom was wounded, Mryglod was a defendant facing unresolved allegations. Her Aug. 18 guilty plea established a conviction for first-degree domestic battery, while the counts prosecutors did not pursue through judgment no longer remained charges awaiting trial. An attorney for Mryglod declined to comment when contacted by Oxygen after the case was resolved.
No public statement from Altom about the guilty plea was located in the reporting reviewed for this article. The most recent verified development is the sentencing itself: Mryglod is serving a 20-year state-prison term for the first-degree domestic-battery conviction, while the man who was critically wounded in the 2024 shooting survived the attack that led to the case.
Author note: Last updated September 29, 2026.