LITTLE ROCK — A 25-year-old Little Rock man was sentenced to 40 years in prison Monday for killing another man in January 2010 using a gun that police had returned to him the day before the slaying.
In exchange for Antonio Hampton’s guilty plea before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims on Monday, prosecutors reduced the charge from capital murder to second-degree murder for the shooting death of Lakendrick Wesley of Little Rock. Hampton apologized to Wesley’s family after entering his guilty plea.
According to police reports, Hampton had promised to sell marijuana to Wesley at 2322 S. Schiller St. when the men quarreled and Hampton shot Wesley three times. Wesley escaped by jumping out a window. He died about an hour after police found him on the porch of a neighboring home, where he gave a resident information about the man who had shot him. Wesley had about $3,400 in his pockets.
Hampton first told police he and Wesley had been the victims of armed robbers but that he had managed to escape before the shooting. Challenged by detectives, Hampton then told officers that Wesley had tried to rob him but that he had managed to shoot Wesley and flee.
Police were able to match shell casings found at the home to a .45-caliber pistol that had been seized from Hampton in October 2009 but returned to him the day before Wesley was killed.
Police reports show that detectives working on another investigation in October 2009 heard shots and found the pistol on the lawn of the Schiller Street residence. According to the reports, Hampton said he had fired the weapon after being attacked by a man with whom he had been feuding. Hampton was not charged in that incident.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 07/24/2012