Prosecutors on Monday dropped capital murder and aggravated robbery charges against a North Little Rock teenager after witnesses changed their stories and DNA evidence was inconclusive.
Frankie Webb was arrested about a week after the Oct. 9, 2013, fatal shooting of 31-year-old Aundrea Lamont Smith in the laundry room at Summer Tree Apartments on Velvet Ridge Drive in North Little Rock.
The mortally wounded father of two was found slumped over the doorway of his girlfriend's apartment and died at the hospital. He had left her apartment with $160 on him, police said. Neighbors had heard shots and called police.
Webb was a resident of the complex when he was taken into custody, court filings show.
On Monday, deputy prosecutor Kelly Ward said Webb, who has turned 18 since the shooting, was arrested after Danny Dednam, a man who said he had been outside the laundry room, recanted what he had told police. The prosecutor said Dednam originally had told investigators he saw Webb go into the room, then heard shots inside, followed by Smith leaving.
The prosecutor told the judge that another person was also recanting: Marques Godfrey, who said Webb and another person had come by his home after Smith was killed, with Webb saying they had killed a man who had fought back during a holdup. Godfrey has since denied that claim, the prosecutor said.
DNA collected from a dryer and the floor of the laundry room was not sufficient to make an identification, Ward said, while DNA collected from Smith's fingernails did not match Webb.
Webb was released on bond in February but was jailed for about three weeks after he tested positive for marijuana after a May court appearance. In a letter to the judge in the court file, he said he regretted using the drug.
"I am disappointed in myself for even being around nonsense. But jail produces stress and my only way I think of relieving it is marijuana, that's why I chose to smoke it," Webb wrote. "Now I realize it's a waste of time and needed money."
Court records show the victim had also been involved with drugs. Smith, with convictions for theft, cocaine and marijuana possession, had been in court-ordered drug-treatment programs for the five years before he was killed.
Metro on 12/16/2014