North Little Rock police can place a Scott murder suspect close to the scene of a July slaying, which contradicts the defendant's assertion that he was at a wake in Little Rock, a Pulaski County circuit judge heard Wednesday.
Police also have three eyewitnesses to the shooting that killed 19-year-old Charles Lamont Boyd Jr. and wounded Saudeion Hussey, two of whom picked the defendant, 51-year-old Keith Charles Jones, out of a photographic lineup, Detective Michael Gibbons told Judge Leon Johnson. The third witness identified Jones as a "look-alike" to the shooter, Gibbons testified.
The witnesses all said the gunman was wearing a dark suit; two of them described him as being in "church clothes" and said the killer had glasses and facial hair, Gibbons told the judge.
One of the witnesses told police she heard the man was named Smiley, Gibbons said, and that's a nickname used by Jones. In an interview with police after his arrest, about three weeks after the slaying, Jones said he'd been wearing a dark suit that day because he had been at a funeral and wake, the detective said.
Defense attorney Bill James accused Gibbons of failing to investigate that alibi, and Jones' maternal uncle, 61-year-old David Stewart, testified that Jones was with him at the time of the killing. Stewart said police have never questioned him about his nephew.
Stewart told the judge that Jones had been with him all day, first at the funeral of a friend, Eugene McCoy, at the St. John Missionary Baptist Church on Main Street in Little Rock, then at the wake for the 53-year-old McCoy at Stewart's Ludwig Street home.
Described by Stewart as a "luau" that filled the whole block, he said the party lasted until 3 a.m. the next morning with at least a hundred people attending.
The detective said he didn't dispute that Jones had been at the funeral or wake. But police have evidence that Jones was also near the site of the shooting, Gibbons said. The defendant's cellphone connected to a phone two blocks from the scene of the killing, the detective testified.
According to police reports, North Little Rock police investigating a shooting complaint in the 1500 block of West 15th Street about 20 minutes before sunset discovered the fatally wounded Boyd lying on the ground between two houses. Officers followed a trail of blood back to a home on West 13th Street where they found the wounded Hussey. Police believe both men were shot at that home.
Wednesday's testimony came at a bond hearing requested by Jones since he was denied bail after his August arrest. The defense asked for $100,000 bail while senior deputy prosecutor Terry Ball requested at least $1 million. The judge imposed a $300,000 bail, and Jones remained jailed on Thursday.
The judge said he wanted to set a substantial bail, describing the probability of prosecutors convicting Jones as high, given the testimony he heard. Success of prosecution is one of the elements judges are required to assess in setting bail.
Jones is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree battery and being a felon in possession of a firearm. The latter charge involves a gun police found during a search of his home after his arrest.
In 1991, Jones was sentenced to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to seven counts of aggravated robbery for trying to shoplift a large amount of clothing from a department store at Asher and University in Little Rock. Police said he had brandished a gun while resisting efforts by store guards to apprehend him. He then ran to a nearby restaurant, tried to rob several patrons and waitresses, fired shots and eventually stole a car from a couple arriving at the restaurant.
Federal court records show that Jones, his 52-year-old sister Sherry Lynn Jones and her husband were indicted on fraud charges in 2004. The siblings each pleaded to a charge of withholding information of a crime, with Sherry Jones being sentenced to six months in prison with the requirement she pay $110,000 in restitution. Keith Jones was sentenced in December 2004 to three years in prison with $500 restitution. The fraud charges were dropped in exchange for their guilty pleas. Sherry Jones' husband was acquitted at trial in October 2004.
Sherry Jones is currently serving a 10-year state prison sentence for robbery and theft after pleading guilty in April. According to court records, Jones stole a $1,400 diamond ring from the hand of a woman who had collapsed while having a seizure in August 2013 at the North Little Rock City Services Building.
A month later, Jones, wearing sunglasses and a wig, held up the Union Pacific Federal Credit Union on Pike Avenue in North Little Rock. She was arrested after investigators learned she'd been telling family members she had robbed the bank, court filings show.
Metro on 11/21/2014