LITTLE ROCK — A panel of three appeals judges ruled Wednesday that the state provided enough evidence of intent to justify a North Little Rock man’s 2011 conviction of first-degree murder.
Antonio Lamont Smith was convicted by a Pulaski County Circuit Court jury of murdering Cizano Jones. Smith was sentenced to 65 years in prison.
He argued on appeal that the state did not prove that he “purposely” killed Jones, which is part of the statutory definition of first-degree murder.
Witnesses testified that he and friends had been using “sherm,” marijuana laced with PCP, the night of the shooting.
During the trial, Smith did not deny shooting Jones, but said he didn’t mean to do it — that he’d pointed the gun at Jones to scare him.
“I just went to shooting. I just started shooting. I started shooting just to scare them. I didn’t think nobody was going to get hurt,” he said during the trial, according to the appellate-court opinion.
Jones was shot three times. Forensic evidence showed that the bullets were fired downward, and that the fatal wound was a gunshot fired to Jones’ forehead. A neighbor testified that two of the shots were fired 35 to 40 seconds apart.
Leroy Vance, who shared a cell with Smith after the shooting, testified that Smith “tried out” several versions of events in an effort to come up with one that was less incriminating.
Judges David Glover, Raymond Abramson and Cliff Hoofman found that the number of shots and the time between the shots undermined Smith’s description of an accidental shooting.
They also found that testimony of Smith’s romantic interest in another friend who was there the night of the shooting and his efforts while in jail to “concoct” a different version of events were substantial evidence to support the verdict.
At the Court of Appeals, the case is CACR11-1292, Antonio Lamont Smith v. State of Arkansas.
Arkansas, Pages 18 on 05/24/2012