A 25-year-old Little Rock man on Thursday accepted a 10-year sentence for killing a gang rival last year.
Tommie Leangelo Ice's guilty plea to manslaughter before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright came two days after Ice was sentenced to prison for cocaine trafficking.
Ice was one of 25 people indicted in September, accused of participating in a Little Rock cocaine-dealing ring that operated from January 2013 until just before the indictment was issued. Ice was the first to plead guilty and be sentenced.
He admitted to conspiracy to possess or distribute more than 500 grams -- about a pound -- but less than 5 kilograms, or 11 pounds, of cocaine in exchange for federal authorities dropping two counts of using a communication facility to facilitate a drug offense.
Ice was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison, the minimum time, to be followed by four years of supervised release.
Five years in prison "reflects the seriousness of the offense, promotes respect for the law, and provides just punishment for the offense. In addition, it will afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct and protect the public from additional crimes by Ice," his attorney wrote in a sentencing recommendation to U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes.
"If Ice is incarcerated in a federal prison for the next sixty months, he will spend the prime of his life in federal prison," Jordan Tinsley wrote to the judge. "While most people in their late twenties start a family or build careers, Ice will not. In addition, he will not see his children grow up for the next five years."
Tinsley also asked Holmes to consider that Ice was not accused of being a leader of the group, but was "at least two or three rungs down the totem pole from the organizers."
Tinsley also asked Holmes to consider how Ice was raised by a single mother "in circumstances that did not provide him with a great opportunity to better himself and make a living through legitimate means." Ice was raised with no support from his father, who has 17 other children, the request states.
To support his own two children, Ice held low-paying jobs as a cook in various Little Rock restaurants between 2006 and 2008 before becoming involved with drug dealing, while also becoming addicted to alcohol, marijuana and narcotic cough syrup, which should be considered as mitigating circumstances, Tinsley wrote.
The decision on whether Ice's 10-year manslaughter sentence will run consecutively to his drug-dealing sentence is up to federal authorities.
In the homicide case, state prosecutors reduced the charge against Ice from first-degree murder to manslaughter and dropped a count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
At the time of the slaying, Ice was on probation for a 2011 conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm from a September 2010 arrest with two pistols and a sawed-off shotgun. He also has a 2010 felony marijuana conviction.
Little Rock police said Ice shot 25-year-old Leonard Montgomery in April 2014 in the parking lot of the Oak Ridge Apartments on Mabelvale Cutoff Road in southwest Little Rock during an argument between feuding gang members.
Police said Ice was a member of the "Self Paid Playas," and Montgomery was with "Highland Park Pirus/Highland Park Murdamob."
Montgomery was struck in his right leg and knocked to the ground but was able to roll over and fire a shot back with his own gun before collapsing.
A father of three, Montgomery had just been placed on probation three months before his death for cocaine and marijuana trafficking convictions in Little Rock and had a 2010 robbery conviction in Denton County, Texas.
Ice was arrested in June 2014. But police had evidence that two shooters were involved: 15 spent spent casings from two guns; nine from a .45-caliber and six from a .40-caliber.
A second defendant, 20-year-old Rowney Torrence Jr. of Little Rock, was arrested in November and charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors reduced the charge to second-degree murder in February in exchange for Torrence's guilty plea and the acceptance of a 20-year prison sentence.
After Torrence's guilty plea, prosecutors also dropped gun, drug and fleeing charges against Torrence stemming from his arrest in Sherwood. Police in that city reported he led officers on a brief car and foot pursuit, leaving behind cocaine, drug paraphernalia and three handguns -- one of which was reported stolen -- in the car he was driving.
Drug charges against his passenger, 22-year-old Kierra Henderson of Sherwood, were also dropped, court filings show.
Metro on 05/29/2015