A 27-year-old Little Rock man on Thursday accepted a 40-year prison sentence for shooting two people in January 2014, killing one of them.
Steven Rashawn Hayes pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and first-degree battery less than a week before he was scheduled to stand trial before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson in the killing of 22-year-old Shoncoven Cantrell Smith and wounding of teenager Joshua Gilliam outside Smith's home on Elam Street.
Hayes, who was on parole for a 2008 robbery conviction at the time, will have to serve 28 years before he is eligible for parole.
Police say Hayes chased Gilliam down and shot him several times in the street before fleeing. Hayes was on parole at the time of the slaying for a 2008 conviction for robbery.
Investigators reported that three people saw a man they knew as "Steve" with Smith before the shooting and two witnesses said they saw "Steve" shoot Smith, with one of the witnesses saying the shooter stood over Smith and shot him in the head. A woman said the men had been arguing over a car when Smith was shot.
Smith, a father of five, was shot at close range, authorities said. The gun was held so close to Smith that gunpowder from the shot burned his left arm, with the bullet breaking the limb.
Either of the next two shots would be fatal on its own, according to medical testimony at an August hearing, with one bullet piercing his abdomen just below his sternum then exiting through his stomach, pancreas, intestines and a kidney. He was also shot through the top of his head.
Hayes was arrested five days later at the Mahlon Martin apartments at 2201 Main St. with two women, Siobhan Monique Bailey, 35, and Dominique Purifoy, 26, both of whom were charged with hindering apprehension over accusations they tried to help Hayes hide from police. Purifoy pleaded guilty to the charge in April 2014 in exchange for a sentence of five years in prison to be followed by a five-year suspended sentence.
Court records show Bailey pleaded guilty in June 2014 and promised to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a sentence of five years on probation.
Gilliam was 16 at the time he was shot but turned 17 in January. Court records show that he was arrested in Little Rock in May 2014, about four months after the shooting, on a robbery charge, accused of pushing Tyler Hull down and stealing the woman's cellphone.
An arrest report says Gilliam was part of a group of youths who attacked Hull, and one of the others got her purse but she was able to pick his picture out of a photographic lineup. Gilliam was also wanted at the time on a juvenile warrant on a burglary count, according to the report.
Gilliam was initially charged as an adult but prosecutors agreed to transfer the charge to juvenile court in July 2014 after he gave a sworn statement admitting to the robbery and promised to plead guilty at his first juvenile court appearance, court filings show. City records show he was subsequently cited by police in December for violating curfew for minors after officers found him at 18 Winchester Drive.
Metro on 08/15/2015