Park Plaza fatal-shooting suspects appear in court
By
Lee Hogan
This article was published March 4, 2013 at 10:04 a.m.
PHOTO BY LEE HOGAN
One person is dead and one is in critical condition following a shooting Thursday night at Park Plaza Mall in Little Rock.
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Deonte Edison.
Tristan Bryant.
This map shows the location of Park Plaza Mall in midtown Little Rock.
The two suspects arrested for the fatal shooting Thursday night at Park Plaza Mall appeared in District Court on Saturday.
Deonte Edison, 18, and Tristan Bryant, 20, have been charged with capital murder and attempted capital murder.
Court documents show no bail was set during Edison and Bryant's appearance Saturday. Their cases were passed to circuit court, and their next court appearance is scheduled for May 2.
Edison and Bryant are alleged to have robbed the Sbarro restaurant Feb. 28 in the food court of Park Plaza Mall in Little Rock. Sbarro employees Christian Hayes, 25, and Jashonta Thomas, 18, were shot during the robbery. Hayes died from injuries, and Thomas was said to be in critical condition.
The police report states Thomas, "told detectives that the person who shot them was Deonte Edison." It also states that Thomas was shot "numerous times."
Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that Sbarro manager Bryan Williams said Edison was a Sbarro employee, and Bryant, Williams' nephew, worked there until "a week or two ago." The police report states Bryant was fired for stealing.
Bryant had been arrested in an Oct. 10 robbery in Little Rock but was freed on $20,000 bond. The October police report states Bryant admitted to his involvement in the robbery. Bryant faces aggravated robbery, aggravated residential robbery and theft charges from the incident.
Comments on: Park Plaza fatal-shooting suspects appear in court
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LR1955 says... March 4, 2013 at 1:18 p.m.
If I had a name like Tristan or Deonte I probably would have grown up with a chip on my shoulder too.
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LevyRat says... March 4, 2013 at 2:49 p.m.
What do you know, Tristan Bryant, the Manager's nephew, was fired for stealing and he comes back with another employee and they rob the store and kill an employee.
This sounds like a strong case for the death penalty.
Liberal take on this story ........ Maybe if the school system was better or if there were programs for little thugs this would not have happened ............
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drs01 says... March 4, 2013 at 3:22 p.m.
You're missing a critical point in this story. Tristan was making a mere $8.50 an hour. Obviously, if we raised the minimum wage to $9.00 this never would have happened. It's a clear case of social injustice. Now if this president hadn't come up with this sequestration we'd have tons of money to piss off on worthless social engineering programs. As to the fate of these two...hand the bastards from a light pole on Park Plaza's parking lot....and do it NOW.
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inquire says... March 4, 2013 at 3:28 p.m.
LR1955, I never heard of the name Deonte before, but Tristan is a fine old British name.
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Populist says... March 4, 2013 at 3:34 p.m.
Levyrat,
They both deserve the death penalty. If Deonte did all the shooting, I am not sure whether under Arkansas' felony murder rule, Tristan can get the death penalty for just being there. Deonte may not get the death penalty because he is just 18. It is pretty heinous to kill anybody, but it is especially bad to kill coworkers whom they presumably knew.
It is possible that one or both have been mistreated and did not form appropriate social bonding. This can happen when Social Services fails to take children away from abusive homes. It also is possible that one or both grew up in decent homes, but they suffer from some mental defects which make attachment impossible. They possibly could have been high. While not all crime can be eradicated, smarter social programs and preventive programs can decrease the crime rate.
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LR1955 says... March 4, 2013 at 4:37 p.m.
This incident is very similar to the employee murder employee at the former WLR El Chico location, don't know what happened there....
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Jjackk says... March 4, 2013 at 4:39 p.m.
What about the judge that let him out on the street? Isn't his name noteworthy? After all, these murders connect the judge indirectly.
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LR1955 says... March 4, 2013 at 4:42 p.m.
An economist and political commentator will discuss guns and crime in a lecture at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service on March 9.
John Lott will discuss his book More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws, which presents statistical analysis of crime data to argue against gun-control restrictions in America.
Lott, a former scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., who earned his doctorate in economics from UCLA, currently serves as a contributor to Fox News. He has previously served on the faculty at the University of Chicago, Yale University, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Maryland, College Park.
The noon to 1 p.m. lecture in Sturgis Hall is hosted in partnership with the Crime Chronicle and KARN News Radio. Seats can be reserved by calling (501) 683-5239.
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Packman says... March 4, 2013 at 5:31 p.m.
Hey drs01 - Amen.
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HOTDEMN says... March 4, 2013 at 6:01 p.m.
as usual the tea baggers jump on this tragedy as another opportunity to display their total lack of political knowledge as well as their tenuous grasp of history and current events. of course it goes without saying that facts were also disregarded in favor of fox news dogma.
as far as these two fine young men are concerned i think they make a good case for public execution. and i have a gun and i can shoot straighter than you because i killed dozens of people in vietnam who were shooting at me unlike all the bottles and cans that you've shot and ted neugent is a sniviling coward and draft dodger who should not be allowed in the same room as the american flag. and speaking of wasting oxygen gw bush should be in prison and cheney should be executed for treason.
there, now the republican robots here can see what it's like when somebody else uses this venue for political vitriol instead of relevent comment.
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drs01 says... March 4, 2013 at 6:04 p.m.
Populist.... there is NO EXCUSE for killing another person...both should get the death penalty as the prosecutor should ask for it and the judge grant his motion. There are no social programs worthy of taxpayer funds that can prevent evil such as this. Eradicate them from society.
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BarichMilhusseinObamaNixonPOTUS says... March 4, 2013 at 9:03 p.m.
Bclem you could use some punctuation and capital letters to make people think you have half a brain. Until then there will be no one taking you seriously, but you will embarrass the liberals.
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arta says... March 4, 2013 at 9:08 p.m.
Dumb and dumber. Darwin Award candidates. Park Plaza used to have a few no concealed weapons signs. Apparently these two didn't follow those rules.
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Populist says... March 5, 2013 at 8:21 a.m.
drso1,
They have a right to trial by jury. If Deonte fired the actual shots into his coworkers, I definitely would vote for the death penalty for him, but you could have some softer jury members who don't want to vote for the death penalty because he is 18 or the defense attorney will present some sob story about child abuse etc. Tristan's defense attorney will argue that he fired no shots and did not anticipate that Deonte would. I suspect whether Tristan gets the death penalty depends on whether Deonte testifies against his buddy that the plan included killing somebody. Their defense attorneys may try to plea to life in exchange for information leading to drug dealers or other criminals. I am not sure whether I would give Tristan the death penalty; I would have to hear the evidence. Unless evidence is presented to the effect that Tristan expected that nobody would get hurt, I would give him the death penalty also but I probably am harsher on doing out sentences than 95% of judges and most juries.
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DEMOCRATREPUBLICAN says... March 5, 2013 at 9:24 a.m.
Such nice kids.
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HOTDEMN says... March 5, 2013 at 12:52 p.m.
hey redwing........ Bite me.
Now I invite you to refute WITH FACTS anything I said. When a Ditto Head can't defend their position they attack irrelevancies in their opponents argument to distract from the real issues. In your version of reality the fact that I dispensed with proper rules of grammer trumps the fact that what I said was true.
1) Ted Nugent IS a coward and a draft dodger.
2) GW Bush LIED to congress and began two wars that have cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives.
3) Dick Cheney LINED HIS POCKETS as well as the pockets of his friends with hundreds of millions of dollars in shady defense contracts and "misplaced" funds.
4) The two losers in the article DESERVE PUBLIC EXECUTION.
There. Enough punctuation for you ? ;-)
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