Gary Eugene Holmes, the Little Rock man accused of killing a child in a road-rage shooting a week before Christmas, made his first circuit court appearance in the case Thursday. He faces charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life.
Holmes, 33, is a convicted sex offender who was first sent to prison almost 15 years ago for the drug-related robbery and shooting of a man who was thrown out of a car and run over by his assailants.
Holmes, now accused of killing 3-year-old Acen Ameer King on Dec. 17, is charged with first-degree murder, committing a terroristic act and possession of a firearm by certain persons, felon.
He has been jailed since surrendering to police the day before the little boy's funeral, a service that ended with a procession of pallbearers being led by Mickey Mouse, the child's favorite cartoon character.
[INTERACTIVE: Map details all Little Rock killings in 2016]
Holmes, a self-employed landscaper, was in court Thursday for arraignment. But Judge Barry Sims rescheduled that proceeding to give Holmes time to retain a private lawyer. His family is planning to hire Little Rock attorney Ron Davis, the judge was told.
Holmes didn't speak at the hearing. His appearance lasted about 3 minutes. His arraignment is now set for Thursday.
Acen was the second child killed in Little Rock street violence over the end-of-year holidays. Ramiya Tinkerbell Reed of North Little Rock was killed 26 days earlier in a neighborhood about 7 miles away.
The girl was 2 months past her second birthday when she was killed while riding in the back seat of a car with her mother. Someone shot into the car, which was being driven by a cousin, on South Harrison Street two days before Thanksgiving.
Both shootings also endangered other children. Four were in the car with Ramiya. Acen's infant sister was sitting next to him when he was shot.
Ramiya's killer remains at large 80 days after her death, even though there's a $40,000 reward offered by the city and the FBI in the case.
Holmes, nicknamed Lil Bam, has been to prison twice and was on probation when he was arrested in December, court records show.
He was given 5 years on probation in October 2015 after pleading guilty to felony counts of domestic battery and terroristic threatening for striking his girlfriend and threatening to kill her during an August 2014 argument at the woman's Jacksonville home.
Police found 46-year-old Chiquita Juanita Evans with a swollen right eye and Holmes sitting in a tan sport utility vehicle, court filings show.
Holmes told officers that he hadn't been violent with Evans. He said he'd pushed her, but only to exit her apartment when she refused to get out of his way. Holmes said Evans had awakened him from a nap on the couch, which angered him enough to leave.
Evans said he became upset when she woke him to make room for her to lie down on the bed. Holmes started yelling and kicking things, and hit her while she was trying to calm him down, she told police.
Evans' 29-year-old daughter told police that she heard a commotion, including the sound of someone being slapped, and that Holmes had threatened to kill them both, then tried to leave in her mother's car, according to court filings.
The domestic-battery charge would have been a misdemeanor, but police upgraded it to a felony because Holmes already had one misdemeanor domestic-battery conviction after a September 2010 arrest in Little Rock, court records show.
Holmes finished serving his two prison sentences in May 2012, court filings show.
He accepted his first sentence, a 10-year term, in December 2002 when he pleaded guilty to felony charges of theft, first-degree battery and robbery, reduced from aggravated robbery.
Those charges were filed after his April 2002 arrest, more than a year after Little Rock police found Anthony David Harrington, 31, lying in the street in the 3600 block of Mabelvale Pike.
Harrington had been shot in the legs three times. Officers were called to the scene because a motorist reported seeing a man fall from a moving car, which then turned around and ran over the man, court filings show.
Harrington told police that he'd picked up two men, whom he knew only as Red and BamBam, at a gas station in the 5300 block of South University Avenue. He identified BamBam as the man who shot him after Red said to "blow his brains out," reports indicate.
The two men threw him out of his car and took the vehicle, he told police.
Red turned out to be Deshawn Lamont Cawley, who told police that he sold drugs for Harrington. Cawley told police that Harrington had called him to deliver drugs to him.
Cawley said Holmes accompanied him because he had agreed to introduce Holmes to Harrington. Holmes wanted to buy drugs from Harrington to sell them on his own, court files show.
Cawley, who was acquitted at trial, told police that Holmes surprised him by pulling a gun on Harrington and demanding money. Cawley said he had no part in the robbery or shooting.
Holmes refused to talk to police but later told authorities that he shot Harrington with Harrington's own gun. Harrington had threatened him with the weapon, he said, but he was able to take the gun away and use it on Harrington, court filings show.
Holmes turned 19 while in jail. Court records show that he'd been in trouble with the law since he was 16, for public intoxication and theft. He spent about a year in a juvenile-offender facility when he was 16, court records show.
He once told investigators that he dropped out of high school after getting arrested. He said he was with a friend who was buying some drugs and the seller pulled a gun. He told officers the weapon fired when Holmes pushed it away, which led to his arrest.
His second prison sentence, a one-year term for fourth-degree sexual assault, involved a 14-year-old neighbor when he was 23.
The punishment came from a Pulaski County jury that deliberated about 25 minutes to find him guilty in March 2008, the only time he has ever stood trial.
He did not appeal the conviction, which requires him to register as a sex offender.
Holmes' assaults on the girl were discovered in July 2007 about 2 months after her 14th birthday. Her mother's boyfriend, a night worker, arrived home on his dinner break and walked in to find the girl naked from the waist down and a man running out the front door pulling up his shorts.
The boyfriend followed the man, but the man wouldn't speak to him, court files show.
The girl said she had unprotected sex with the man. He never told her his name, she said, so the only name she knew for him was the one that came up on her phone when he called her.
Detectives showed her and her mother a photograph of a man, but they both said it wasn't him. Her mother said she thought her daughter was describing a different man, one they had seen around the apartments on Baseline Road.
The girl directed police to a neighboring apartment, which turned out to be rented to Holmes' 25-year-old girlfriend. She said he sometimes stayed with her. When police showed the mother and daughter Holmes' photograph, they both identified him, court filings show.
The girl said it was the first time she'd ever had consensual sex. She said she'd been raped three years earlier when she was 11 while she was spending the night out of town in Camden with relatives.
The girl said she'd met Holmes when he greeted her while she was walking her dogs. She told the man she was 14 when he asked her age, the girl said in a police interview.
He asked her if she wanted to call him sometime. She told him no. But a couple of days later when she saw him again, she asked for his number, the girl said. She said she called him to visit her house on the night they were caught.
Metro on 02/10/2017