A 58-year-old North Little Rock man whose life sentence for first-degree murder was commuted by Mike Huckabee accepted a 20-year sentence for robbing a bank earlier this year, the third time he's been sent to prison since he received clemency in 2004.
Wayde Earl Stewart was arrested a block away from the U.S. Bank branch at 3701 Camp Robinson Road by North Little Rock police responding to an alarm shortly after noon March 26. Within five minutes of the holdup, Stewart was in custody, and shortly after that, admitted holding up the bank to detectives, according to an arrest report.
Deputy prosecutor Scott Duncan said Stewart, masked and gloved, passed a note stating, "this is a robbery" and collected $5,970. Stewart pleaded guilty to robbery and theft in his second circuit court appearance Monday before Circuit Judge Herb Wright.
Huckabee, in his second term as governor, granted Stewart clemency in December 2004 after he had served 30 years of his life sentence, over the objections of prosecutors. Stewart was subsequently granted early release after a parole-board hearing.
Stewart was 14 and his co-defendant, Tommy Lee McGhee, was 17 when they were convicted as the triggermen who shot 25-year-old Nicholas Papadopolos to death in August 1973 while trying to rob him of drugs.
"Of the five people arrested in the case, Stewart is the last person in prison," Huckabee said in a news release announcing his intention to commute Stewart's sentence.
Bill Clinton granted clemency to McGhee in 1992 when he was governor.
Evidence at their March 1974 trial showed that Stewart shot Papadopolos in the chest and then McGhee shot him twice as the wounded man tried to run. McGhee told police he was under the influence of marijuana, LSD and wine at the time.
Stewart admitted that they wanted to rob the man but said the shooting was accidental. Stewart said the shotgun he was carrying accidentally went off when he jumped off a porch railing.
Stewart was arrested again in June 2007 in North Little Rock by police investigating a complaint about someone waving a gun. Police found a pistol in Stewart's waistband, charging him with felon in possession of a firearm.
At the time of the arrest, he had been on probation 19 days for a felony theft conviction for stealing a stereo, DVD player and TV from his mother, Louise Shields, court records show.
But because Huckabee's pardon eliminated the murder conviction and restored Stewart's right to own a gun, prosecutors said at the time, police could arrest him on the gun charge only because of the felony theft conviction.
He accepted a four-year prison sentence in May 2008 for the gun charge and violating his probation, court records show.
His next arrest was in October 2011 for trying to cash a stolen check for $1,500, then again in December 2011 for stabbing a man, Robert Henry, in the leg with a pickax on Moss Street in North Little Rock during an argument over a cigarette lighter. He pleaded guilty to forgery and second-degree battery in those cases and accepted a four-year sentence in May 2012.
Then he was arrested again in April 2013 during a drug raid at a home at 1212 W. 25th St. in North Little Rock, where he was found asleep in a bedroom. Police reported finding 200 grams of marijuana -- about 7 ounces -- 1.8 grams of cocaine, 176 Tramadol pills, 13 oxycodone pills, 13 hydrocodone pills and drug paraphernalia.
He pleaded guilty to paraphernalia possession in exchange for five years on probation in December 2013, after his co-defendant Derrick Wayne Shelton, 54, pleaded guilty to drug charges.
Two months into his probation, Stewart cut out copper pipes for an air conditioner at a home at 1123 W. 24th St. in an attempt to steal them to sell as scrap metal. Pleading guilty to felony criminal mischief and probation violation in April 2014, he accepted a six-year prison sentence.
Metro on 07/07/2015