The drug dealer facing a 110-year sentence in the killing of a man after a drug theft in April 2013 lost his bid to reverse his guilty verdict.
The Arkansas Court of Appeals found that Miller County Circuit Judge Brent Haltom correctly refused a directed-verdict request from Frank Starling and that there was enough evidence to support Starling's August 2014 conviction for first-degree murder.
Starling's attorney, Bill McLean, argued that his client, though at the scene of the fatal shooting of Andrew Cheatham III, had no intention of killing Cheatham.
McLean said Starling was merely upset over the theft of his drugs and that it was Starling's brother, Serandon Starling, who fired the shot that killed Cheatham.
But three Court of Appeals judges, in an opinion penned by Judge Raymond Abramson, disagreed.
"Based upon our review of the testimony presented at trial, there was evidence that Frank Starling drove around Texarkana with the conscious object and stated purpose to assist in hunting down and killing the victim," Abramson wrote.
According to court records, Frank Starling was supposed to sell cocaine through an acquaintance known as "Wild Bill," but before the sale could happen, Wild Bill stole the drugs and hopped into a vehicle driven by Cheatham.
Starling, according to court records, rounded up associates, including his brother, to go looking for Cheatham.
The "posse," as the group was called by prosecutors, spotted Cheatham when it stopped at a local convenience store. In two cars, the group chased him, boxed Cheatham's vehicle in on a side street, and Serandon Starling killed him, according to court records.
Serandon Starling, 26, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving two life sentences in the Grimes Unit in Newport.
Frank Starling remained at the East Arkansas Regional Unit in Brickeys on Wednesday.
Metro on 09/03/2015