Court upholds man's conviction in death during deer-meat altercation

The state Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld the second-degree murder conviction of a man who threw a concrete block during an altercation that included the victim using a package of frozen deer meat as a shield.

Robert Singleton Johnson Jr. was charged after the death of Wendell Davis. Johnson acknowledged throwing a concrete block at Davis but said Davis had initially thrown something at him. Johnson believed the item was a brick or a piece of concrete; it was actually frozen ground venison.

Johnson's cousin, Vernis Jean Brothers, said Johnson threw a brick first and that Davis attempted to shield himself with the white package of venison.

The defendant sought to throw out statements he made to police after the Jan. 19, 2006, incident in Hot Springs. The deer meat, seized as evidence, was destroyed before the trial but a photograph of it was entered into evidence.

Johnson wanted Circuit Judge John Homer Wright to tell jurors to infer that their own examination of the venison would have been unfavorable to the prosecutors' case. Wright declined. The Appeals Court said no one argued that the meat could have been kept cold pending the trial.

Separately, the court upheld the convictions of a woman tried for manslaughter and abuse of a corpse in Pulaski County

Tangela Monique Johnson said she should have been able to demonstrate that victim Gaylord Artis, her boyfriend, had a violent reputation. Artis died around May 15, 2004, and his body was placed on a burning trash pile. The appeals court said Judge Barry Alan Sims was correct to limit testimony from a series of witnesses, including one who sat in the courtroom during a part of the trial.

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