A 40-year-old Helena-West Helena man has been sentenced to 10 years for fatally stabbing a homeless man at a Little Rock hotel.
Darron Keys pleaded guilty to manslaughter on March 31 in Pulaski County Circuit Court for killing 37-year-old John Lee "Red" Bowers Jr. at the Rodeway Inn & Suites on West 65th Street in February 2015, according to sentencing papers filed on Thursday.
Bowers was found unconscious by police on the grounds of the hotel off Interstate 30 and died later at the hospital.
He had been stabbed 16 times during an argument, according to authorities.
Police immediately named Keys as a suspect, and he was arrested at Geyer Springs and Mitchell streets 11 hours after the slaying.
Although police arrested Keys on a first-degree murder charge, prosecutors filed the manslaughter charge, which carries a 10-year maximum sentence.
Court records show he had between one and three prior felony convictions, but details were not available. In Little Rock, he had three misdemeanor theft convictions between 2014 and 2015.
Bowers had nine felony convictions between 1987 and 2012 in Jefferson, Lee and Pulaski counties for aggravated assault, second-degree battery, residential burglary, theft, forgery, witness intimidation and breaking or entering.
Metro on 04/09/2016