$100,000 bail cut to $15,000 in shooting

Prosecution’s case is mostly a ‘swearing match,’ defense attorney tells judge

A Pulaski County Circuit judge on Thursday reduced the $100,000 bail to $15,000 for a Little Rock man accused of shooting at a woman after the defense argued that police had produced little more evidence than the man's word against the woman's.

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Darrell Dewayne Profitt II is charged with committing a terroristic act and aggravated assault, charges that carry up to 26 years in prison. The defendant's only criminal history is a misdemeanor drug possession conviction.

Defense attorney Lou Marczuk asked Circuit Judge Leon Johnson for the $15,000 bail, saying it was an amount his 26-year-old client could afford. Profitt had posted bond and been released by 4 p.m. Thursday.

The only witnesses police have interviewed about the shooting are the woman and Profitt, Marczuk said. They haven't found any gun or collected any bullets, he told the judge, describing the case as a "swearing match" between the woman and his client.

Deputy prosecutor Robbie Wilson asked for substantial bail, telling the judge that the woman was almost hit by gunfire.

Profitt had been jailed since his May 9 arrest over accusations that he threatened 33-year-old Vanessa Brown of Little Rock with a gun that same day outside the home at 7712 Eagle Drive that he shares with his sister, mother and 86-year-old grandmother.

He's also accused of shooting out a window in the SUV the woman was driving.

According to police testimony, Brown told investigators she had gone to the residence to talk to Profitt's sister, 21-year-old Earlmesha Coleman, about some shoes when Profitt came out of the house with a gun and told her to leave.

Detective Wade Neihouse told the judge that Brown said she told Profitt that he'd have to kill her and that she wasn't scared of his weapon, which appeared to be a revolver.

She said she got into the 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe and left after Profitt moved toward her with the weapon and pointed it at her, the detective testified.

Brown said she didn't realize until she got to her Geyer Springs Road home that a rear passenger window had been shot out, the detective testified.

Neihouse told the judge that Profitt told him that night he had been at the house, but denied having a gun or firing any shots.

The detective said Profitt told him that he'd stepped out of his home to find a crowd of people and that he'd seen a woman get out of a vehicle. He said he'd asked the woman's father, Sylvester Carroll, who was in the vehicle to move it out of the way or he would "whoop" the man, Neihouse testified. Carroll is also Coleman's boyfriend, the detective said.

Profitt didn't testify but his mother, Barbara Kay Alexander, told the judge that there has been no gun in the house and that she's never seen her son with a weapon.

Alexander, 50, also told the judge that she needed her son home as she's about to undergo major surgery. She said she'd be able to guarantee that he attends all of his court hearings.

Profitt is a brother of Tony Lenzaro Brooks, 30, who is serving a life sentence for capital murder and abuse of a corpse following his conviction for killing a woman, 31-year-old Amy May Hughett, and setting her body on fire in Little Rock in 2013. Both Coleman and Alexander were witnesses at his trial.

Metro on 07/30/2016

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