Teen's killer gets 40-year term

A 34-year-old Little Rock man accepted a 40-year prison sentence Thursday for luring an Altheimer teenager to his home, where he robbed the 17-year-old and shot him.

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Darryl Lemar Lea pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and robbery, reduced from capital murder and aggravated robbery, in exchange for Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims imposing the sentence that will keep him behind bars for at least 28 years.

Deputy prosecutor Kim Davis told the judge that Lea got Jason Foster to go to his Bradley Drive home in July 2013. In the bedroom, Lea pulled a gun and shot Foster when he struggled, then chased the wounded teen out of the home still shooting at him, she said.

Leaving a bloody trail, Foster made it to a residence several houses down where he collapsed and died on the front porch, she said, telling the judge that Lea's roommate, 25-year-old Robert Lee Dennis, was in the house when Foster was shot.

Lea then fled in a Toyota Camry belonging to Carliesha Murry, Foster's sister, which Foster had used to drive to the home, Davis told the judge. Later that same day, Lea was arrested after he was found near where the car had been dumped, the prosecutor said.

She told the judge that Lea gave police several accounts of what happened before admitting to shooting Foster and taking his money.

Lea and Dennis are co-defendants in a pending robbery case in which Lea is accused of punching a woman, Latoya Louden, 24, of Little Rock while Dennis stole her purse, the same day Foster was killed, court records show.

Lea's attorney, Rob Berry, told the judge that, as part of Lea's plea agreement, any prison time that would come from that case would not add to Lea's 40-year sentence.

Court records show Lea has a 1998 conviction for robbery from when he was 17 years old and bit a K-Mart worker, Darrel Griffith, who had tried to stop him from shoplifting $60 in unspecified merchandise from the Asher Avenue store in December 1997. He received probation in that case.

In July 2000, Lea and Natara Laquale "Punkin" Norvell of Little Rock robbed a 95-year-old woman in her West 36th Street apartment, leaving her tied up for more than 17 hours before she was found. They got away with about $5 and subsequently pleaded guilty to robbery and false imprisonment, reduced from kidnapping.

Lea was sentenced to five years in prison, while Norvell, now 29, got five years of probation, court records show.

Metro on 09/19/2014

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