A North Little Rock man convicted of killing a romantic rival was sentenced to 40 years in prison Friday after trying to blame the Christmas Eve 2014 slaying of 27-year-old Alex William Booker on the 19-year-old woman whom prosecutors said was the focus of their love triangle.
Tyrun Lamont Jones cannot qualify for early release because of a prior conviction for first-degree domestic battery for shooting his 17-year-old ex-girlfriend in the stomach when he was 19. He was on parole when Booker was killed.
Jurors deliberated about 30 minutes Friday on punishment, which includes a $15,000 fine, for the 27-year-old defendant. The married father of five will be 66 years old when he gets out of prison.
The jury of seven women and five men did reduce the charge against Jones from first-degree murder, which carries a potential life sentence, to second-degree murder after deliberating about four hours over two days.
The lesser charge carries a 45-year maximum sentence for murders committed by firearm. If Jones can't pay the fine, it can be converted into an extension of his prison sentence.
In closing arguments, deputy prosecutor Amanda Fields told jurors that Jones' accusations that the woman killed Booker don't make sense. In his version of the events, the woman would have clearly been acting in self-defense and Booker's slaying would have been ruled justified, Fields said.
"If [she] was shooting Alex to defend everybody, why wouldn't she say that?" Fields said. "[She] would've been justified in defending herself and everyone in there."
Jones did not testify at Friday's sentencing, but he spent an hour on the witness stand Thursday to explain why he had lied to police about his whereabouts the night Booker was killed, why he tried to persuade siblings to support his false alibi, why he tried to implicate a dead friend as the real killer and why he attempted to persuade his girlfriend, whom he said shot the victim, not to cooperate with prosecutors.
"I didn't have anything to do with that crime," Jones said. "I didn't want to be in this situation that I am in now."
He said that if he had tried to tell police who the real killer was, his wife and children would be in danger because the woman's father, a high-ranking member of the North Little Rock Black Disciples street gang, would want revenge.
All his lies and deceit were undertaken to keep from disclosing that 19-year-old Brianna Jordan was the one who shot Booker, Jones testified.
Jordan and her roommate were the prosecution witnesses who said they saw Jones shoot Booker in the living room of their apartment at the Shorter College Gardens apartment complex on North Beech Street.
Jordan's father was "my superior" who had brought him into the gang, Jones said, comparing his connection to the man to the stature the presiding judge, David Laser, had over the lawyers in the case.
He did not name the woman's father, but court records show that he is Bryant Lee "Snoop" Jordan, 38, of North Little Rock, who was sentenced to 60 years in prison in 2008 for second-degree murder and committing terroristic acts involving a series of shootings in North Little Rock.
Jones said he was not afraid for himself, but he couldn't give his family the protection they needed since he had been behind bars since a week after the killing.
"Nobody is going to protect my wife and kids like I am," he said, telling jurors that naming Brianna Jordan as the killer was only a last resort. "Brianna shot him."
Prosecutors contend Jones was jealous after learning that Jordan had kept in contact with Booker, a former boyfriend, while she was dating Jones.
Jones laughed at the accusation that he was jealous, saying he knew Jordan was sexually involved with other men but didn't care because he had plenty of other women, her roommate among them.
Jones said he wrote a letter to Booker's girlfriend identifying a friend who'd been murdered as the killer as part of the effort to satisfy authorities without implicating Jordan.
"I admit I lied and said Quincy [Wilbon] did the shooting. He was dead at the time I put it on him," Jones said.
Jordan is the killer, he told jurors, describing how he saw her shoot Booker, the son of Michael Booker, a Little Rock attorney and former Democratic state legislator. Jones said Jordan shot Booker in the crowded living room of Jordan's apartment just as the belligerent and intoxicated man started to pull his own gun.
"When I seen the black handle [of the pistol], the shots rang out," Jones said. "I couldn't tell you if he got shot. I'm ducking, everybody's ducking."
Jones' version of events differed vastly from the testimony of the two women. In their account, they and the two men were the only ones in the apartment when Booker was shot.
Jones said there were at least twice that number of people present and offered the testimony of three men, prison inmates Bobby Terell Lockhart, Courtney Jamel Howard, and John Mike Cameron, all of whom said they'd been at the apartment the night Booker was killed, to support his account.
In closing arguments, defense attorney Robert Tellez told jurors that his client made bad decisions in dealing with authorities. Jones told "dumb lies but survival lies" when faced with two women who were lying about him to keep from being charged with murder, Tellez said.
"It will be a mystery to me while Tyrun Jones did what he did. But he did a courageous thing, coming up here and telling us what really happened on Christmas Eve 2014. You've got to decide who do you believe. Do you believe Anita and Brianna or do you believe Tyrun Jones?"
Metro on 05/07/2016