FORT SMITH -- A Sebastian County man was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for fatally shooting a sheriff's deputy this summer and for attempting to kill 10 other law enforcement officers.
"I'm sorry. I can't say I'm sorry enough times," Billy Monroe Jones told Circuit Judge J. Michael Fitzhugh before the judge passed sentence after Jones' guilty plea to capital murder in the Aug. 10 death of Deputy Bill Cooper at Jones' home in rural Greenwood.
Jones, 35, also pleaded guilty to 10 counts of attempted capital murder, two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and one count of wounding a Greenwood police dog, Kina. He was given life sentences on the charges of attempted capital murder and was sentenced to 52 years on the remaining charges. All the sentences are to run concurrently.
Jones will be transferred to the Arkansas Department of Correction as soon as possible, Sheriff Bill Hollenbeck said Tuesday.
Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Shue said negotiations that led to Jones' plea Tuesday were initiated by Jones' attorneys.
Shue said that after consulting with Cooper's widow, Ruth, officers who were the targets in the shooting and law enforcement agencies involved in the case, he agreed to the plea deal that took the death penalty off the table.
"The sentence of life without the possibility of parole is her wish, and we are going to honor that wish," said Hollenbeck, noting that the plea saved Ruth Cooper from reopening painful wounds during appeals that could have continued for years.
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Tall, thin and bearded, Jones was surrounded by guards as he stood before Fitzhugh during Tuesday's sentencing hearing. Several law enforcement officers sat in the courtroom along with a few members of Cooper's family and some from Jones' family.
Shue said Ruth Cooper was not at the hearing. She had no desire to attend any hearing, make a statement or have a statement from her read in court.
Three law enforcement officers gave victim statements.
Hollenbeck said the only thing Jones' actions accomplished was to strengthen the relationships of law enforcement agencies in the area. It also gave Hollenbeck an opportunity to stand with Cooper's wife and witness her strength.
Instead of focusing on the 62 rounds Jones fired at the 65-year-old Cooper and other officers that day, Hackett Police Chief Darrell Spells said he would rather remember the hundreds of children Cooper helped during his 15 years with the Sebastian County sheriff's office. He also said he would focus on the love and compassion he received from the town he serves and not on the head wound he suffered from Jones.
"Although the impact of the events of that day will live with us forever, the cowardly act of one will not deter the work that many of my fellow brothers and sisters and I continue to do daily even after this tragic event," Spells read from his statement.
Barling patrol officer Keith Lindley, another targeted by Jones, said in his statement that he couldn't get to the scene fast enough after he heard over the police radio '"Shots fired. Shots fired. Cooper down.'"
Lindley recalled the sound of bullets whizzing by his head and the frustration he felt from not being able to see Cooper or determine from where the shots were fired.
He also said he marveled at the restraint officers exercised in arresting Jones after his surrender.
"You took the best of us that day, Billy Monroe Jones," Lindley said.
Hollenbeck acknowledged that none of the officers at Jones' home at 4722 Arkansas 253 returned fire. The only person to fire shots was Jones, from inside his mobile home with a Bushmaster XM15 semi-automatic assault-style rifle.
Hollenbeck said officers didn't know whether there were others in the home at the time.
"They showed heroic restraint by not returning fire," he said.
Shue and Hollenbeck said investigators never determined a motive for the shooting. Jones has never said why he began shooting.
Cooper and Spells responded to a disturbance call at the home of Jones' father, who lived next door, after Jones pointed a gun at his father. When Cooper and other officers arrived, Jones pointed a gun at them and they ran for cover.
Jones shot Cooper in the neck, and another round went through the window of Spells' patrol car and grazed his temple. Two rounds went through a Greenwood police patrol car and wounded police dog Kina inside the car.
Under fire as Jones shot from inside his home, officers reached Cooper and Spells and got them out of the line of fire. A 4½-hour standoff followed before Jones surrendered.
An estimated 2,500 people, including representatives from law enforcement agencies from across the country, attended Cooper's funeral at the Fort Smith Convention Center, then formed a miles-long procession to Oak Cemetery.
A Section on 11/30/2016