Fatal parking-space fight gets killer life in Arkansas prison

Marvin Stanton looks on as final statements are given Wednesday, May 4, 2016 at the Miller County Courthouse. (Photo by Jerry Habraken /Texarkana Gazette)
Marvin Stanton looks on as final statements are given Wednesday, May 4, 2016 at the Miller County Courthouse. (Photo by Jerry Habraken /Texarkana Gazette)

TEXARKANA -- A man who killed another over a parking spot at a State Line Avenue convenience store last year has been sentenced to life plus 15 years in an Arkansas prison by a Miller County jury.

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Marvin Arrell Stanton, 49, received a life term for murder and an additional 15-year sentence Wednesday evening for the use of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The sentences must run consecutively.

Stanton pulled into the parking lot of the RaceWay convenience store about 10 p.m. on a white motorcycle Sept. 25, according to earlier testimony. Several of Stanton's friends pulled their bikes into slots at the front of the store, but Stanton pulled up next to a pickup that sat idling in an area where he and his fellow riders typically liked to park.

Jesse James Hamilton, 22, was about to pull his truck out of the station when Stanton repeatedly shouted, "Get out of my [expletive] parking space." Hamilton and his passengers, Lavon Strong and Sanmarcos Jacobs, got out of the pickup, and Hamilton faced Stanton, according to earlier testimony.

Under questioning by his lawyer, Jason Files, Stanton took the stand Wednesday morning and told the jury that he thought Hamilton's truck belonged to a friend of his, Steven Moore, and that he was just kidding when he said, "Move your truck."

Under cross-examination by Miller County Prosecuting Attorney Stephanie Black, Stanton denied using the expletive and lost his composure. Stanton's voice rose to a boom as he talked over Black.

"I better not hear another outburst like that," Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson warned.

Stanton claimed Hamilton and Strong, 23, were "talking trash," and that a fight between him and Hamilton that lasted 25 seconds left Stanton feeling like his life was in danger and that he had no option but to pull his fully loaded .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and shoot.

Stanton testified that Hamilton told him that he had five seconds to get out of his face and had said "one" when Stanton said, "two, three, four, five," before shoving Hamilton.

"Mr. Stanton started this fight with his words, he started this fight with a shove, and he ended this fight with a bullet," Deputy Prosecuting Attorney David Cotten said in closing remarks.

Strong testified Tuesday that Hamilton was trying to make sense of the situation when Stanton told the men that he was a Marine and lifted his shirt to reveal his gun. Stanton said he shoved Hamilton because he feared that Jacobs, whom he described as standing in a "gangster pose" with his hands in front of him and his feet apart, might be armed.

Strong said Hamilton, who was under 6 feet tall and weighed 177 pounds, hit the truck hard when the 345-pound Stanton pushed him. Strong said Hamilton punched Stanton in the face. The two men struggled for 25 seconds before Stanton's friend, Emily Robinson, began pulling Hamilton by the back of his shirt.

The men separated, and Stanton drew his gun and fired, according to earlier testimony.

"Mr. Stanton is used to bullying everyone around," Black said in closing remarks. "He never thought Jesse Hamilton could get the better of him. What if we tell the public that you can start a fight and if you start losing you can pull out a gun and shoot?"

Hamilton's mother and widow brought jurors to tears with their testimony during the punishment phase of Stanton's trial.

"It wasn't a movie, and it wasn't a dream, and it wasn't a nightmare," Hamilton's mother said of the night police officers came to her home and informed her of her son's death. "His friends and family have all been given a life sentence."

Hamilton's wife, Anna, the mother of his 2-year-old, said that her daughter will grow up with no memory of her father.

"He won't be there when she starts kindergarten or to walk her down the aisle," Anna Hamilton said. "This man will get visitation. He'll get letters. He'll get phone calls. We don't get any phone calls. We have pictures with no words. Just a face that will never come home."

State Desk on 05/06/2016

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