LITTLE ROCK — Two North Little Rock men have pleaded guilty to murder charges for participating in the January slaying of a mother of 13 who was shot in the head while cooking dinner. Prosecutors said an apparent feud during the week leading up to the shooting culminated in 37-year-old Virginia Brown's slaying by gunmen who were targeting her husband.
Ed Deshawna "Lil Ed" Harris, 28, accepted a 40-year sentence for first-degree murder, reduced from capital murder, on Tuesday. Prosecutors say Harris was the gunman who fired a rifle into the home where Brown was cooking dinner at the stove. He will not be eligible for parole until he has served 28 years.
The man accused of driving the car, Justin Lamar Eason, 20, accepted 20 years for second-degree murder, reduced from capital murder. Eason, a cousin of Harris', will have to serve five years before he can qualify for parole.
Prosecutors dropped 13 counts of committing a terroristic act against each of the men, with each charge representing one of the children in the home.
But prosecutors were also forced to drop the capital murder and terroristic act charges against two other North Little Rock men who had been accused in the Jan. 27 shooting at 3201 W. 23rd St., after Brown's husband, Royce Weaver Sr., said he couldn't conclusively testify that he had seen Deandre Roshawn Eason, 23, and Corey Allen, 25, also relatives of Harris, among the gunmen.
"We can't ethically go forward," deputy prosecutor Marianne Satterfield told Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza on Thursday as she moved to dismiss the charges against the men.
Satterfield told the judge that Weaver had initially identified Eason and Allen as being involved in the shootings, but on Monday, during further questioning by prosecutors, Weaver said he couldn't say for sure. Satterfield said Weaver thought the men he saw were Eason and Allen because the gunmen fled the shooting in a white sport utility vehicle that he recognized.
Weaver claimed he'd been robbed by the four men, who were in a white SUV, about six or seven days before his wife was killed, the prosecutor said. However, he didn't report it to police until after the slaying and didn't immediately divulge that the robbery occurred during a drug deal. Weaver identified the men with Harris as "Fat Man," "Strap" and "Bookie Head."
On Jan. 23, someone fired into the Harris home in North Little Rock, the prosecutor said, wounding Harris' father in the foot. The family reported the shooting, but initially declined to cooperate with detectives, she said, although this week Harris' fathertold police he wants the shooting investigated.
Satterfield said Justin Eason told prosecutors that Harris' father told Harris to "take care of this," and the younger Harris got a rifle and Eason drove them to Weaver's home. Eason told authorities that Harris fired the weapon from the back seat of the car while he drove, the prosecutor said.
Thursday's action didn't mean Allen would go free. He pleaded guilty to a charge of furnishing prohibited articles in exchange for a 13-year sentence. Satterfield told the judge that Allen was found with marijuana in his mouth in the courthouse holding cell after an April court appearance.
She said Piazza's bailiff Ronnie Smith was leading Allen back to the cell on April 21, when fourwomen approached them to speak to Allen. Smith saw one of the women hand Allen something and had a deputy search Allen in the holding cell, the prosecutor said. Allen denied having any contraband, but "obviously" had something in his mouth, she said, which turned out to be a small bag of marijuana. The woman couldn't be identified and wasn't charged.
The terms of his plea agreement require the 13-year sentence start when Allen completes a 10-year sentence for cocaine possession, Satterfield told the judge. He was convicted on that charge in November 2003 and was on parole at the time of Brown's slaying.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 08/29/2009