Woman who cut two cleared

A Pulaski County jury accepted a 28-year-old woman's claim that she was protecting herself when she cut her ex-boyfriend and slashed a romantic rival's face and cleared her of wrongdoing Wednesday.

Capping a two-day trial before Circuit Judge Leon Johnson, the seven men and five women deliberated about 90 minutes to acquit Shermica King of North Little Rock of first-degree battery for injury to Tomeka Gayfield, 44, and of second-degree battery for James Calvin Foreman's wounds in February 2013 inside a parked car in front of the Buffington Towers Apartments in downtown Little Rock.

King was living at the East Second Street apartments at the time.

Prosecutor Jayme Butts-Hall called King "a woman scorned" who was enraged that Foreman, King's 49-year-old boyfriend, was now involved with Gayfield.

King admitted on the witness stand to pulling out a straight razor and pressing it against Foreman's chest, but said she only used the blade to fend off Foreman and Gayfield, whom King said had an electric stun gun.

"This was something done out of rage, out of anger, out of hurt feelings," said Butts-Hall, who was assisted by deputy prosecutor Ashley Bowen.

"If she couldn't have James Foreman, nobody could. If Tomeka Gayfield was going to have him, he was going to have to look at that scar for the rest of their relationship."

Both the prosecution and defense agreed that the question of whether King had committed a crime came down to whom jurors believed.

The victims and the accused had to acknowledge prior bad behavior on the witness stand, with Foreman admitting to having sold crack cocaine and King admitting to using it.

Defense attorney Lou Marczuk told jurors that Foreman and Gayfield's stories had changed too much to be believed.

The state's "case is these two witnesses, and they can't say the same thing twice," Marczuk said. "If you can't buy a used car from them [Gayfield and Foreman] ... you can't trust them."

Butts-Hall asked jurors not to deny justice to Gayfield and Foreman because of their pasts or because they might be a little rough.

Gayfield could have lost an eye and might be suffering permanent nerve damage because of King, the prosecutor said.

Gayfield and Foreman's accounts had minor inconsistencies, she acknowledged, but said those discrepancies arose from the passage of time.

Their stories match on the important points, Butts-Hall said.

King also admitted to memory lapses, namely almost everything that went on in the car between the three, the prosecutor said.

King was pregnant when she was arrested in March 2013 and would spend 63 days in jail before posting bail, court records show.

In May, she was one of seven women who shared a $179,500 settlement to resolve a lawsuit against Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay, jail administrator Randy Morgan and jail medical director Carl Johnson over complaints about how they had been treated in jail while they were pregnant.

King's share was $25,500. According to the lawsuit, she was not given proper care for "severe" and "unnecessary" pain she suffered while in jail for at least two weeks before she had a miscarriage.

Metro on 10/08/2015