A 20-year-old Little Rock man on Wednesday accepted a 28-year sentence for participating in the January 2014 slaying of a man in a shooting that wounded three others.
Tracy Tivon Brown pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, reduced from capital murder, as potential jurors waited outside Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims' courtroom in case Brown decided to go to trial on the capital murder charge, which carries a potential life sentence.
Brown, represented by defense attorney Willard Proctor, will have to serve seven years in prison before he's eligible for parole.
His co-defendant, 20-year-old Tracy Trevor Bailey Jr. of Little Rock, was sentenced in May to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder. He will be parole-eligible after serving 28 years.
Bailey and Brown were both 17 in January 2014 when prosecutors say they arranged to buy a quarter-pound of marijuana from Terrance Lawan Brison, 36, and Thomas Lee "T1" Gilbert, 31.
The two met Brison and Gilbert in the parking lot of the Mabelvale Place apartments on Mabelvale Pike road in Little Rock.
Police said the men went to the apartment complex to complete the drug deal because one of the defendants said he had scales and wanted to weigh the "pot."
Bailey opened the door of the black Chevrolet Tahoe the men were sitting in, and both he and Brown fired into the sport utility vehicle, prosecutors said.
Gilbert, the SUV driver, was shot in the head, and the married father of four died in the parking lot.
Brison was shot several times in the back and arm but ran away, as did another passenger, his cousin Rickey Hill, who was wounded in the back.
Bailey and Brown fled with about $1,000 but left the marijuana behind, according to police reports.
Brison told police there were three shooters, but only Bailey and Brown, who was a Central High School senior, were arrested.
Brown surrendered the following day after police announced detectives were looking for him. Bailey, a student at Hall High School, gave himself up two days after the killing.
Court records show that Brison's cousin, Deonte Slater, told police that Bailey had contacted him about buying marijuana and that Slater contacted Brison to arrange the sale.
Slater, 21, told police that Bailey and Brison met at Slater's Saxony Circle home. The two men then left to make the transaction.
Slater said there were two other men in the black Toyota Camry Bailey arrived in while Brison was a passenger in a pickup driven by another man, court filings show.
Metro on 11/10/2016