A 36-year-old North Little Rock man who pleaded guilty to shooting a pregnant woman and firebombing the car of another woman was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison after testifying that he had done nothing wrong.
Terry Lynn Shelton Jr. had asked for probation, saying that the past year he's spent in jail, separated from his three children, had taught him that he needed to make his kids his priority in life.
He promised to give up alcohol, acknowledging a "little drinking problem," and told the judge he could be trusted never to have a gun again despite his history as a former hunting club operator.
But Circuit Judge Barry Sims said his crimes were too serious for him not to go to prison. Shelton faced up to 26 years, but the judge said he would follow the sentencing guidelines, which recommended a 10-year term for a defendant like Shelton who had no criminal record.
"These are bad things," the judge said. "I wouldn't be protecting society if I let him go without consequences."
Testifying Monday, Shelton denied wrongdoing in the October 2014 shooting that wounded Samantha LeeAnn McClain, 30, at her MacArthur Drive home, testifying that he was forced to fire at the home in self-defense after he was fired on first. And he told the judge he had nothing to do with firebombing a neighbor's home on Reggie Lane in June 2015.
But, represented by attorney Bill James, Shelton had pleaded guilty in May to charges related to those crimes -- misdemeanor arson for the fire at 8233 Reggie Lane, the home of Randall and Katrina Rinehart, and first-degree battery and aggravated assault, both felonies, in the shooting that wounded McClain while her 6-year-old son was in the house with her.
He also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal mischief for damaging the car of his girlfriend's mother with a brick while the woman was outside his home in August 2014.
"I made the plea to make the charges go away," Shelton told the judge during cross-examination by deputy prosecutor Amanda Fields.
He denied having anything to do with the "Molotov cocktail" thrown at the Rinehart home while their 15-year-old son was home.
"I didn't throw nothing at their house," Shelton told the judge.
Shelton also told the judge he was not the first to shoot when bullets flew at the MacArthur Drive home, testifying that he could not have driven away safely when the shooting started because his truck's location would have required him to back through the line of fire at least twice.
"I thought they were rushing to kill me because the shots were so close," he said.
But his testimony differed from the account McClain and her former boyfriend, Kent Deshawn Wawak, 34, gave the judge, saying Shelton had been the first to shoot.
Wawak said Shelton was his cousin and that they had quarreled when Shelton showed up at the MacArthur residence and Wawak had asked him to leave.
McClain heard the men arguing and went outside and also told Shelton to leave, testifying that "we were pretty much cussing each other out."
Shelton left but returned about 20 minutes later, McClain and Wawak told the judge, describing how they could see him on the security camera when he started firing into the house. Wawak said he did shoot back at Shelton but only after the man had opened fire.
A bullet went through the door and narrowly missed her face, McClain said, telling the judge that she yelled at Shelton to tell him her 6-year-old son was in the house.
"You could literally see bullets flying through our living room," she said.
She said she was on the phone with emergency dispatchers when she was shot in the head and arm. McClain said she could see Shelton firing his gun on the camera when she was wounded.
McClain testified that she still has a bullet in her body because doctors were unable to operate because of her pregnancy. She said the pain medication she received caused her to relapse into drug addiction.
"I got addicted. They [pills] made me angry. They made me mean," she told the judge.
She said her drug abuse broke up her relationship with Wawak and led her to associate with people she never would have before. She said she ended up participating in the June 2015 abduction and beating of Shannon Nicole Cox.
McClain, a mother of three, is serving a 20-year sentence for kidnapping, first-degree battery and attempted capital murder for taking part in the attack on Cox that ended with Cox's boyfriend, Nick Edward McDaniel, 37, shooting Cox in the face and throwing the wounded woman off a Pulaski County bridge.
McDaniel is serving a 40-year sentence.
Metro on 06/25/2016