FORT SMITH -- Three teens charged as adults in the shooting death of a University of Arkansas at Fort Smith student pleaded innocent to charges in the case Wednesday.
Shakur Shanden Sharp, 16, his brother James Lariel Sharp, 15, and Dionte Dewayne Parks, 16, were charged last week with first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated robbery and one count of kidnapping.
During a brief video arraignment from the county jail, Sebastian County Circuit Judge James O. Cox appointed the Office of Public Defender to represent the three and set their bail, based on a request from the prosecutor's office, at $500,000 each.
The three are charged in the Jan. 23 death of Kaleb Glynn Watson, 22, at his town house at 4700 Windsor Drive.
Police records say the Sharp brothers and Parks, who lived two doors down from Watson, planned to rob Watson. According to court documents, when Parks rang Watson's front doorbell about 7:30 p.m., Shakur Sharp, armed with a stolen handgun, and James Sharp rushed in the back door.
Watson and a friend were at the town house at the time. The Sharp brothers tied Watson's hands, but not the friend's, with a shoestring supplied by Parks, according to a probable-cause affidavit. James Sharp started to search the town house for valuables to steal while Shakur Sharp watched Watson and the friend.
The affidavit said Watson freed himself from his restraints and struggled with Shakur Sharp, who shot him several times. As the brothers fled, Shakur Sharp threw the gun into a dumpster. It was not recovered, according to police.
The Sharp brothers were developed as persons of interest during the investigation when people who were interviewed said the brothers told them they had gone to Watson's home to rob him and that they shot him.
Detectives interviewed Parks as a witness, and he told them that he had supplied the brothers with a tote bag and the shoelace used to tie up Watson and that he rang Watson's doorbell at the outset of the robbery, the affidavit says.
Police learned that the Sharp brothers had fled to the Little Rock area, where they have family, the affidavit says. An aunt called police on the night of Jan. 27 to report that James Sharp was at her home in North Little Rock.
Police in Fort Smith contacted the U.S. Marshals Service's Fugitive Task Force in Little Rock, and task force members arrested James Sharp without incident.
The task force learned that Shakur Sharp was at the home of other relatives in Little Rock. Task force members with help from the Little Rock and North Little Rock police departments surrounded the home and found Shakur Sharp hiding in a bathroom.
The two were returned to Fort Smith that night. Parks was arrested Jan. 28.
Even though the three are minors, Prosecuting Attorney Dan Shue said last week that state law allows any minor 16 or older to be charged as an adult for any felony.
He said state law allows minors 14 or older to be prosecuted as adults for a list of seven felonies, which includes first-degree murder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping.
State Desk on 02/04/2016