A 29-year-old Little Rock man on Monday accepted a 32-year prison sentence for killing a homeless man whose body was found in MacArthur Park last year.
Joshua Mahde Todd pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for the sentencing recommendation by deputy prosecutor John Hout to Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen. Todd will have to serve more than 22 years before he is eligible for parole.
Scheduled to stand trial next month, Todd had claimed the September slaying of 33-year-old Milton Bernard Carter Jr. was in self-defense, telling detectives he had shot Carter, who authorities say was mentally ill, after the older man had made an "aggressive" move by reaching into his pocket during their encounter, police said.
Todd also said he chased down Carter and shot him in the head after he'd fallen to the ground. Todd told detectives he wanted to make sure Carter didn't get up again, police said.
A jogger found Carter's body, with numerous gunshot wounds, in the park. Police said Carter had been living in the park for a few days after being turned out of a friend's home.
Investigators said Carter had been known to bother clerks at the Shell station at Ninth Street and Interstate 30, one of them being Todd's girlfriend. Police questioned Todd because surveillance video showed him at the store about the time of the shooting.
He denied being in the area, but police didn't believe him.
Confronted by detectives who told him that he had been seen on surveillance video shooting Carter, which was not true, Todd said he had shot the man, then threw his gun into the Arkansas River, according to police.
He also said he had given Carter a dollar, and the dead man had a single dollar in his pocket when he was killed, police said.
Metro on 07/30/2014