Man gets 35 years for '12 LR slaying

A 22-year-old Little Rock man accepted a 35-year prison sentence Wednesday for participating in the murder and armed robbery of a 50-year-old man killed on his own front porch while trying to fight off two masked men, deputy prosecutor Kelly Ward said.

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Two weeks after his co-defendant was sentenced to life in prison for the July 2012 killing of Charles Gaskins, Donte Terrall Davis pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, reduced from capital murder, and aggravated robbery in exchange for the prison sentence from Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims.

Davis will be 44 years old by the time he qualifies for parole. The man whom prosecutors accused of firing the gun that killed Gaskins, 21-year-old James Johnson III, was convicted of capital murder and aggravated robbery at trial two weeks ago.

Johnson didn't testify at trial, but his attorney said the Little Rock man had been at the home when Gaskins was killed but played no part in his death.

Johnson's lawyer argued that two women who claimed to have overheard Johnson talking about shooting a man at the trailer park where Gaskins lived were lying to implicate his client because they were in love with Davis and wanted to shield him. The women said they had gone with Johnson and Davis to the Southern Pines Mobile Home Park on South Heights Road to buy marijuana.

Gaskins' fiancee, Nikelle Girndt, testified at trial that she and Gaskins were having a midnight cigarette on their porch when they saw a red car drive by, but chalked it up to the presence of a neighbor they suspected was a drug dealer.

The car made them suspicious when it drove by a second time, Girndt said, and they were accosted by the two masked men moments later. Girndt said Gaskins was struggling with the men while she ran inside and locked the door, which was kicked open during the ordeal.

Prosecutors contended Davis went into Gaskins' home as the older man fought with Johnson, and that Davis came within a few feet of Gaskins' 7-year-old granddaughter, who was watching TV. The girl testified at trial that a masked man ran into the living room where she was sitting, but fled when she screamed.

When Gaskins was killed, Johnson was on parole for first-degree battery for a 2010 shooting that partially blinded another man, while Davis was on probation for convictions from March 2012 for firearm and drug possession and from January 2011 for residential burglary and theft.

Metro on 08/21/2014

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