FORT SMITH -- Four people charged with first-degree murder were ordered Wednesday to stand trial the week of Sept. 11, according to Sebastian County Circuit Court records.
The attorney for one of the four, Jorge Chirinos, 17, filed a motion Tuesday his client's case be transferred to juvenile court. Circuit Judge J. Michael Fitzhugh set a hearing on the request for May 1.
Chirinos along with Bryan Porras, Ryan Oxford, both 20, and Alberto Chavez, 18, were charged in January in the shooting death of 18-year-old Justin Lopez.
Court officials say the trial is expected to last five days.
A probable-cause affidavit said Porras drove the four to 2315 N. Ninth St. about 10:30 p.m. Jan. 14. They had guns and a list of people they believe disrespected their gang, Slanga 96, the affidavit said.
The affidavit said the four went to the rear of the property where Lopez and Trey Miller, 20, were in a camper trailer. More than 30 shots were fired into the trailer by at least two guns, the affidavit said.
Lopez was hit at least once by gunfire. Miller hid in a bathroom at the back of the trailer and was not injured, according to the affidavit.
When police arrested them, Chavez and Oxford admitted to being part of the group that shot at the trailer, the affidavit said. Chirinos said he only rode with the others to the shooting.
Chavez was charged in 2014 with manslaughter and first-degree battery, according to Circuit Court records. The case was transferred to juvenile court in 2015. Chavez was 16 at the time.
Porras was charged in Circuit Court last year with six drug offenses. He pleaded guilty to all of them in June and was given suspended sentences.
Even though Chirinos was charged as an adult, Fitzhugh has the discretion to transfer the case to juvenile court, Joseph Tobler with the Arkansas Public Defender Commission wrote in the transfer motion.
Tobler wrote that there were several factors the judge had to consider in determining whether to transfer the case. Among them were the seriousness of the offense, whether it was committed in "an aggressive, violent, premeditated, or willful manner," and the level of Chirinos' planning and participation in the shooting.
Other factors included Chirinos' sophistication or maturity as determined by his home, environment, emotional attitude and pattern of living, and whether there were facilities or programs in the juvenile justice system that were likely to rehabilitate him.
NW News on 04/06/2017