A 27-year-old Pine Bluff man whose blood was found at the scene of a December 2011 murder was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Monday after admitting to participating in the killing.
Mark "Muff" Goolsby pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, reduced from capital murder, before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims a day before he was scheduled to stand trial for his role in the slaying of 25-year-old Greg Smith at the Squire Court Apartments on Geyer Springs Road.
In an arrangement negotiated by defense attorney Toney Brasuell, Goolsby accepted a 15-year prison term that will be followed by a 10-year suspended sentence. Because Goolsby has a prior conviction for a violent offense -- a 2006 first-degree battery charge -- he cannot get parole.
Goolsby lost an effort to have the judge throw out the DNA evidence against him last week. He is the last of four men charged in connection with Smith's death, but only the second to be convicted for the slaying.
Christopher Lamar "Toppie" Rogers, 24, of Pine Bluff, an admitted drug dealer, was convicted at trial in February 2013 of first-degree murder and robbery and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He'll be eligible for release in 2040.
Rogers testified that a paranoid Smith opened fire when Rogers surprised him with a greeting in the apartment parking lot. Rogers said he had gone to meet Smith to buy marijuana. Rogers said some of the people with him exchanged gunfire with Smith, but he did not.
Two co-defendants who also had been charged with capital murder -- Rogers' cousin, 32-year-old Stevie Darnell Rogers of Benton, and Rashun Lamar Goins of Texas -- each pleaded guilty to robbery in exchange for a 20-year prison sentence that would be cut to 10 years in exchange for testifying against Goolsby.
Goolsby was the last of the four to be arrested. Goins told police that he, Christopher Rogers, and two men he knew only as "Muff" and "Mon" had gone to the apartments, where Smith had been visiting a friend, to meet the victim.
Authorities haven't charged Mon, named as Eric Austin in court proceedings.
Police identified Goolsby through his DNA, which was derived from a blood trail in the parking lot and inside the gray Dodge Charger that police say the men used that night to get to the apartments.
They had arranged a meeting with Smith under the pretense of purchasing 2 pounds of marijuana in a deal arranged by Stevie Rogers.
Goins told police that Smith and others in his party -- he testified he did not see who else was shooting -- exchanged gunfire in the parking lot. Goolsby was shot in the hand, Goins said.
An apartment resident awakened by the gunfire saw people fleeing in a gray Dodge Charger, and Pine Bluff police, by coincidence, found the bullet-damaged and blood-spattered vehicle in their city a couple of hours later. Goins was the first to be arrested after he told police, as they were impounding the car, that he had been driving it earlier.
Metro on 08/20/2014