A Little Rock man who killed a man he believed was involved in the homicide of a friend was sentenced to 32 years in prison Tuesday after Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson said the defendant had not fully taken responsibility for what he'd done. Prosecutors called the killing of 19-year-old Kegan Bernard Hilliard an "assassination."
Loren Curtis "Tooche" Owens pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in March for fatally shooting Hilliard last year. In exchange for that plea, prosecutors agreed to leave sentencing up to the judge instead of a jury.
Owens, 23, must serve almost 22 1/2 years before he can qualify for parole. He'd asked the judge for a 20-year sentence, which would have made him eligible for early release after 14 years.
But Johnson said he never heard Owens admit to shooting Hilliard, who was shot five times -- four times from behind -- and questioned whether the defendant was really taking responsibility for the slaying.
"There were five shots -- one from in front," Johnson said, closing the two-hour hearing. "I never saw a clear admission he was shot five times."
Hilliard was killed April 26, 1014, in front of 2706 Longcoy St., the home of 20-year-old Bernard Darris Sherrod, whose funeral had been earlier the same day. Sherrod's friends and family were gathered at the home for a celebration of his life.
Sherrod, who had been Owens' best friend, had been fatally shot five days earlier, at the Park Heights apartments on North Bryant Street where he lived, and Hilliard was rumored to have supplied the killer with the gun, defense attorney Lou Marczuk told the judge.
Prosecutors said there was no evidence Hilliard had been involved beyond being friends with both Sherrod and the man who killed him, 22-year-old Darrell Lamont Freeman Jr. of Little Rock.
Freeman pleaded guilty in November to manslaughter, reduced from first-degree murder, for killing Sherrod in exchange for a 20-year sentence that will require him to serve at least five years in prison.
At Tuesday's sentencing, Owens apologized repeatedly to Hilliard's parents, saying he never planned to kill anyone that day. But Hilliard had showed up at the Sherrod home and wouldn't stop talking about how good a friend he was with Freeman, Owens told the judge. Hilliard had earlier tried to go to both Sherrod's funeral and burial to express his condolences to the man's mother but was turned away each time because he hadn't been invited, according to testimony.
Hilliard and another man at the party argued, Owens said, and he said he was asked to intervene. Hilliard became more aggressive and pulled a gun, Owens said, saying he drew his own pistol and hit Hilliard in the head with it. Hilliard was undeterred, balled up his fists and came at him, Owens said, telling the judge he leaped out of the way and fired his first shot into Hilliard's left thigh.
"I jumped to the side and I shot him," he said, denying he deliberately shot Hilliard in the back. "I was on my way to cleaning my life up. A bad thing happened and I hate that it happened."
He even re-enacted his story in handcuffs and shackles with deputy prosecutor John Hout playing the role of Hilliard. Owens also said he didn't clearly remember all that happened because he'd been drinking.
But Hout challenged Owens' version of events because it didn't fit evidence of Hilliard's bullet wounds or the testimony of the only eyewitness, a neighbor two houses down from the Longcoy home.
Hilliard was shot in the thigh, Hout acknowledged, but that bullet entered through the back of his leg. In all, Hilliard was shot four times from behind, with the only shot delivered head-on being a gunshot in his throat, a wound that destroyed his Adam's apple and vocal chords, according to medical testimony. Bullets also pierced his lungs, heart and spleen.
"He's trying to apologize but he's never acknowledged he shot [Hilliard] four times in the back," Hout told the judge. "Kegan was down on the ground as this man was putting four more bullets into his back. This is the assassination of a young man in the middle of the street."
Hout asked the judge to consider the varying trajectories of Hilliard's wounds as evidence that Hilliard was first shot in the throat, which knocked him to the ground, with Owens standing over him and shooting as Hilliard tried to crawl away.
Hout also disputed Owens' story about Hilliard arguing with anyone, pointing to the testimony of neighbor Patricia Robinson, the only known eyewitness. She said she was sitting on her front porch with family members when she saw a young man approach the crowd of people at her neighbors' home where he was embraced by three men. Robinson said she didn't know the neighbors or the man.
"I didn't hear no shouting, no arguing," she said. "The next thing I heard was guns. I seen the person fall. When he fell to the ground, he kept shooting."
The shooter, another man she didn't know, stood over the stricken man, and appeared to kick him before fleeing past her home and into the woods. Owens was captured about six hours after the killing when police hunted him down with dogs in the woods. He cooperated with police after his arrest and gave a statement admitting to the shooting and expressing remorse.
The only character witness for Owens was Sherrod's mother, Essence Williams, who said her late son and the defendant were "two peas in a pod" since childhood. Testifying on the anniversary of her son's death, Williams said she didn't know Hilliard but described trying to comfort him after he was shot. She told the judge she heard rather than saw the shooting while she was sitting in a car in front of her home about to leave to run errands.
"I got on the ground with him, saying no, no, no," she testified. "I didn't care why he was there. I just didn't want him to die on me."
Marczuk, the defense attorney, told the judge," witnesses are fearful to come forward." Both Owens' mother and girlfriend, the mother of his toddler daughters, did not attend sentencing to testify on his behalf because they were afraid of retaliation, Marczuk told the judge.
Metro on 04/22/2015