A Pulaski County circuit judge on Wednesday issued a no-bail arrest warrant for a Little Rock man accused of killing his 78-year-old grandfather in a shooting that also wounded his mother, after the defendant failed to show up for his murder trial.
Judge Herb Wright ordered Justin Michael Bledsoe's arrest after waiting an hour past the 26-year-old man's scheduled trial time. Bledsoe's attorney Mark Jesse said he hadn't heard from his client and didn't know where he was.
Deputy prosecutor Jeanna Sherrill said the defendant's mother and grandmother, both prosecution witnesses, had tried to call him but could not reach him.
His trial has been scheduled since October. Bledsoe has been free on $350,000 bond since April. On Tuesday, his bail bond company asked to be relieved because Bledsoe had not been living up to his promise to report by phone daily, meet with a company representative monthly and keep the company apprised whenever he changed his phone number.
According to court files and police reports, police were called to the Bledsoe family home on Marcia Drive in the middle of the night in November 2013 and had to force their way into the residence to investigate a complaint there about a disturbance with weapons.
When police arrived, they heard Bledsoe yelling from inside the home that his grandfather, James Ralston Bledsoe, needed help, but the younger man would not let officers inside because he wasn't sure if they were police.
Inside the house, police found blood spatter, broken glasses, holes in the wall and other signs of a disturbance, with the senior Bledsoe alive but suffering from multiple gunshots in a bedroom. Justin Bledsoe was sitting on the sill of a broken window in the room and called out for police to help "grandpa."
With police in the room, Justin Bledsoe's mother came out of a closet and told officers that he had tried to kill "everyone." Jacqueline Bledsoe, 46, said she and her 7-year-old son Gezus had been asleep when Justin Bledsoe entered the room and started shooting. She was wounded in the leg but had shielded the boy from the gunfire with her body.
Justin Bledsoe then went into his grandfather's bedroom and began shooting, she said. The elder Bledsoe's wife, Betty Marie Bledsoe, 72, was able to get away and hide with her daughter and younger grandson.
Jacqueline Bledsoe told police that Justin Bledsoe began shooting into the walls in what she believed was an attempt to shoot the rest of the family. She said the man had been acting strangely for the past few day, telling investigators he had acted that same way a couple of years ago when he was under the influence of "sherm," a mixture of marijuana and PCP.
Justin Bledsoe appeared to be under the influence of drugs and was deemed too inebriated for detectives to question that night. He did tell officers he did not know how any of his family could have been hurt inside the home since he and his grandmother had earlier locked the doors. He said he'd used marijuana but nothing else.
During a search, police found marijuana and cocaine on him, along with a folded note that said "Dear family, well I guess I have reached the end of the road I was pos [sic] to go on." Investigators found a pistol on the living room couch with two empty magazines on the floor nearby.
James Bledsoe died in January, about 10 weeks after the shootings.
Justin Bledsoe was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree battery, simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms, felon in possession of a firearm, possession of cocaine with intent to delivery, and two counts of aggravated assault. The charges together carry a potential life sentence.
Court records show Bledsoe pleaded guilty to second-degree battery in April 2011 for punching his pregnant girlfriend, Whitney Johnson, 38, in the face and choking her and was sentenced to three years in prison. He also has convictions for gun possession and drug possession.
Metro on 12/12/2014