Teen admits killing; charge cut

LITTLE ROCK — In exchange for a 40-year prison sentence, a Little Rock teenager admitted on Monday to being the gunman in a fatal robbery.

Cambrin Sain Barnes, 17, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on Monday in exchange for prosecutors reducing the charge from capital murder and dropping an aggravated robbery charge for the January 2009 killing of James Lee London Sr. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims imposed the 40-year sentence at the recommendation of prosecutors. Barnes, 16 at the time of the slaying, will be eligible for parole after serving 28 years.

London, 30, was shot to death in front of the Comstock Road home of Barnes’ co-defendant, 18-year-old Lemuel Sission Whiteside, who is awaiting trial on capital murder and aggravated robbery charges.

Monday, deputy prosecutor Marianne Satterfield told the judge that Barnes, Whiteside and Whiteside’s girlfriend, 20-year-old Leanna Talley, were driving around when Whiteside’s mother purportedly called her son to tell him London was at the house. Whiteside gave Barnes a gun and the pair told Talley, the driver, they were going to “hit a lick,” slang for robbery, and directed her to Whiteside’s home, the prosecutor said. The pair demanded London’s money and when he resisted, Barnes shot him, the prosecutor. Police say Barnes was found wounded in a neighboring carport and died a short time later. The pair were arrested a week after the slaying, with Talley arrested about 3 1 /2 months later. Each was charged with capital murder and aggravated robbery.

Talley pleaded guilty to robbery in May in exchange for prosecutors dropping the more serious charges against her and with the promise that she would testify against Whiteside at his July 14 trial.

Talley told police she saw the men hide outside the home then confront London, according to court records. She said she saw Barnes shoot London when the older man “ran at him,” records show. She gave Barnes a ride to another location, Talley told police. She said she then returned to the scene where she saw Whiteside performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the wounded London, but that she left when Whiteside told her to go.

Barnes told police, records show, that London wanted to buy a gun from him, but that he tried to rob the older man instead, firing a round when London rushed at him. Barnes said he expected London to have about $8,000, apparently from an income tax refund, records show.