FORT SMITH -- Three teenagers, one of them 15 years old, were charged as adults Thursday with first-degree murder, kidnapping and two counts of aggravated robbery in the shooting death last weekend of a University of Arkansas at Fort Smith student.
Sebastian County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Shue filed the charges in circuit court against brothers Shakur Shanden Sharp, 16, and James Lariel Sharp, 15, and against Dionte Dewayne Parks, 16.
The Sharp brothers were arrested Wednesday night in Little Rock and North Little Rock. Parks was arrested about noon Thursday in Fort Smith.
The three are being held without bail in the Sebastian County jail and are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday, according to a news release from Shue.
"Pursuant to the Arkansas juvenile code, any minor 16 years of age or older can be charged with any felony at the discretion of the prosecutor," Shue said Thursday.
"Likewise, any minor 14 years old or older can be charged with an enumerated list of seven felonies."
First-degree murder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping are on that list in Arkansas Code Annotated 9-27-318(c).
Shue said the law allows attorneys for the three to file motions later to transfer the cases from circuit court to juvenile court and a judge would have to examine certain factors in making a decision in that instance.
The three are charged in the death of Kaleb Glynn Watson, 22, at his town house at 4700 Windsor Drive in Fort Smith.
According to a probable-cause affidavit, the three admitted making plans to rob Watson, who lived two doors down from Parks.
The affidavit said Parks, who lived at 4704 Windsor Drive, admitted that he provided the Sharp brothers with a tote bag and shoelaces to tie up Watson.
A Police Department news release said Parks rang the front doorbell at Watson's home to create a diversion while Shakur and James Sharp -- dressed all in black and wearing ski masks -- ran in the back door.
On Saturday about 7:30 p.m., Watson was in his town house with a friend, identified in the affidavit as Bailey Smith, when two masked males burst in. Shakur Sharp was armed with a stolen handgun, the affidavit said.
The intruders tied up Watson, but not Smith, and one began looking around the home for valuables to steal, according to the affidavit.
They also took Watson's cellphone and wallet, the affidavit said.
Watson broke free of his restraints and began struggling with Shakur Sharp, according to the affidavit. Sharp shot Watson several times, and the brothers fled, the affidavit said.
As they fled, Shakur Sharp threw the gun into a dumpster, according to the police news release. The gun has not been found.
Watson was transported to Mercy Hospital in Fort Smith, where he died.
Watson was an engineering student at UAFS and the son of Ricky and Linda Watson of Clarksville, according to obituary information from Roller-Cox Funeral Home in Clarksville.
A candlelight vigil for Watson was held Wednesday afternoon on the UAFS campus, and his funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at Hedgeway Church in Clarksville.
Fort Smith police spokesman Sgt. Daniel Grubbs said that after learning that the Sharp brothers may have been involved in the shooting, detectives began interviewing their friends, family members and acquaintances.
Some people stepped forward with information, Grubbs said.
He said some of those people were being evaluated for possible involvement in Watson's shooting but that investigators didn't have anything concrete late Thursday.
"A lot of them are being classified as witnesses," he said.
Grubbs said a Sharp family member in the Little Rock area called the Fort Smith Police Department late Wednesday and reported that James Sharp was in her home.
Supervisory Deputy Kevin Sanders of the U.S. Marshals Service's Eastern Arkansas Fugitive Task Force in Little Rock, said the office received a call from Fort Smith police Wednesday night that Ebony Harris of 1111 Eureka Garden Drive in North Little Rock had reported that her nephew, James Sharp, was at her home.
He said that earlier Wednesday a woman who lives with Harris had received a call from Shakur Sharp, asking her to meet him at a gas station.
When they met, Shakur Sharp asked her to take James Sharp and hide him at her house, according to reports.
When Harris returned home from work that evening and discovered James Sharp there and that he may have been involved in a shooting, she persuaded him to surrender, Sanders said.
Sanders said that when task force members arrived at the house about 6 p.m., James Sharp surrendered peacefully.
Deputy marshals interviewed him and the woman who agreed to shelter him, Sanders said.
Based on the interviews, they determined that Shakur Sharp was staying with relatives at a duplex renovated into a single residence at 516 W. 16th St. in Little Rock.
He said a large contingent of officers converged on the residence.
He said about 15 officers with the fugitive task force, the North Little Rock Police Department and the Little Rock Police Department's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program set up a perimeter around the property.
The occupants were called to step out of the house, and about 10 people emerged, Sanders said. He said all of them denied knowing Shakur Sharp.
Officers entered the house and searched. They found a locked bathroom door.
They didn't get replies when they called Shakur Sharp's name but determined that he was inside, Sanders said.
Eventually, after being told that the house was surrounded, he surrendered, Sanders said.
The Sharp brothers were returned to Fort Smith on Wednesday night.
"The minute we knew they were in custody, we were on our way to Little Rock," Grubbs said.
State Desk on 01/29/2016