A Little Rock man accused of killing a newlywed while fleeing from police was denied bail Monday after a circuit judge heard testimony that a Pulaski County sheriff's deputy conclusively identified the 19-year-old defendant as the driver of the car.
Deonte Tywon "Strong" Jones was arrested Sept. 4, the day after Heather Michelle Cater of Traskwood was run over by a black Chevrolet Tahoe in the parking lot of a Walgreens in the 3700 block of South University Avenue.
He is charged with capital murder, leaving the scene of an accident with death, delivery of a controlled substance and felony fleeing. Circuit Judge Barry Sims ordered Jones held without bail until at least his next court appearance in April. His trial is in May.
Jones has denied wrongdoing, telling authorities that the SUV he had borrowed had been stolen while he was inside the Walgreens, his attorney told the judge.
Cater, who worked at the neighboring Rock City Smiles dental office, was chatting in the parking lot with co-workers, police said, and was near her car when the sport utility vehicle drove toward her. She was struck and knocked into the air as she tried to get out of the way. The vehicle then dragged her for 75 feet before running over her.
The SUV escaped the parking lot while the officers tried to help Cater, but she died the following morning. The Tahoe drove through connected parking lots, crashing into two other cars before the driver and occupants abandoned it about four blocks north of the drugstore.
Police say Cater's injuries included spinal fractures and collapsed lungs. The 22-year-old woman had been married five months.
At a bail hearing Monday, chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson told Judge Barry Sims that the Tahoe raced off when a narcotics investigator, Deputy Adam Robertson, walked up to the vehicle to question the occupants about suspected drug-dealing.
Robertson could see the driver's face through the windshield and was later able to identify the driver as Jones, according to testimony Monday.
Robertson was part of a narcotics squad shopping for supplies at the Walgreens, the prosecutor said.
The officers noticed a suspicious man who reeked of marijuana, while the other squad members, parked outside in the drugstore parking lot, saw what they thought might be a drug deal, the prosecutor said, between the occupants of a Dodge Charger and the black Tahoe.
They questioned a man who got out of the Tahoe, the prosecutor told the judge, and he admitted to having purchased a felony amount of marijuana. The Tahoe raced away when Robertson approached it, the lead investigator, Deputy Jeff Allison, told the judge.
About 15 minutes after Cater was struck, the owner of the SUV, Jones' aunt, Deanna Powell of Little Rock, called to report the car had been stolen, Johnson said.
Questioned by defense attorney Rob Berry, Allison said Robertson is the only witness who can identify Jones as the driver.
A second witness, Clifton Moore, did not identify the driver, while a front-seat passenger from the Tahoe, Marvin Thomas, has refused to cooperate with investigators, the deputy testified.
Pressed by Berry to identify any other witnesses who could tie the defendant to the vehicle, Allison said two bystanders who saw men running from the wrecked SUV were not asked to identify the men they'd seen, while a third witness, who told police he thought the SUV had tried to avoid striking Cater, has not been shown a photo spread to see if he can recognize the driver.
Investigators have surveillance video from the Walgreens, but its not sufficient to identify Jones, Allison told the judge.
Court records show the defendant has been in trouble with the law before. In April 2012, he and Aaron Demond Morrison, 23, of Little Rock were charged with aggravated robbery and theft over accusations that they carjacked 26-year-old Michael Jackson at gunpoint of his 1984 Chevrolet Caprice near Roosevelt and Summit streets.
According to an arrest report, Jones, then 16, was seen by police taking the wheels off the car and captured after a brief foot chase. The charges were transferred to juvenile court a week after Jones turned 17, and Morrison subsequently pleaded guilty to felony theft and was sentenced to five years on probation.
In August 2013, Jones was arrested with three other Little Rock men -- Nathaniel Mitchell Sullivan, Shaheed Keon Williams and Marquis Lamar Wilburn -- over accusations that they robbed two men at gunpoint that month, Derrian Brown, 18, and Dekaleyon Cooley, 15, on West 18th Street.
The four, all of them 19, were charged with aggravated robbery, but the charges were dropped in July, two months before Cater was killed.
Metro on 12/16/2014