Detective Tommy Hudson has little patience for people who don't protect the integrity of a crime scene.
"If they're too lazy to put gloves on, then [they] need to get out of my crime scene," he said. "And I'll tell them that."
“If they’re too lazy to put gloves on, then [they] need to get out of my crime scene. And I’ll tell them that.”
— Detective Tommy Hudson
That's because Hudson, who is retiring this month after more than 30 years with the Little Rock Police Department, has seen how tiny the margin for error is at the scene of a crime.
He was part of a forensic team that found a single hair at the scene of the 2008 murder of Little Rock TV anchor Anne Pressly, who died after being found beaten at her Heights neighborhood home. That hair led police to a Marianna man, Curtis Lavelle Vance, who was convicted of capital murder more than a year after the brutal attack.
"Had we not got that one hair, Curtis Vance would have never been arrested," Hudson said.
With more than a decade on the homicide unit, Hudson has worked on around 400 Little Rock homicide cases and been the lead detective on around 60 to 70 of those, he said.
Beyond the responsibilities of a homicide detective, Hudson also served as president of the Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police, which includes more than 490 sworn members of the Little Rock police force.
Hudson's talents came out in the interview room, talking with the witnesses and suspects tied to some of the most serious crimes in the city, said Sgt. James Lesher, who oversees the department's homicide unit and has known Hudson since the mid-1980s when they started rookie school together.
"He's one you can always count on," Lesher said.
[GALLERY: Little Rock police detective Tommy Hudson through the years]
While he might have a tough exterior from time to time, Lesher said Hudson is a compassionate person.
"He legitimately cares about people," he said.
As a homicide detective, Hudson was part of a team of detectives responsible for investigating non-natural deaths -- suicides, industrial accidents, shootings and stabbings, to name a few.
With Hudson away from day-to-day operations, Lesher said the unit now has six homicide detectives, two short of its allotted staff.
The job has led Hudson to work on some of the most high-profile Little Rock homicides in recent memory.
In addition to the Pressly case, he remembers the case of Kamya Weathersby, the 6-year-old girl fatally shot in December 2007, when dozens of bullets riddled a Little Rock home, with many going into the bedroom where Kamya and her younger sister were.
"I know in my mind, they knew they were shooting at children when they shot her," he said.
Kamya's sister took a grazing round from an assault rifle, while Kamya was fatally shot in the head, Hudson said.
Police arrested three brothers in the killing of the 6-year-old -- Ricky Dale Smith, Kevin Lawrence Banks and Marqus Tyrell Smith, according to court records.
Ricky Smith and Banks were found guilty of the killing while prosecutors dropped charges against Marqus Smith, citing an "unreliable" witness.
"She was killed by some gangbangers, who I hate," Hudson said.
Hudson also remembers the pressure that came from his first homicide case as lead detective.
Shaneda Nycole "Nykky" Ricks, a 27-year-old mother of three, had been found shot to death in her kitchen.
"It was a brutal, brutal scene," he said.
Hudson said the homicide team developed Ricks' boyfriend, Dennis Earl Handie, as a suspect in the slaying.
Handie, who worked as a Little Rock elementary school security guard, initially denied all involvement and told police Ricks was alive when he left her, according to media reports at the time.
Later, Handie confessed to the crime.
"[It was] my first big interrogation for a homicide, and he ended up confessing," he said.
According to media reports, Handie also directed authorities to a river near Eudora, where he said he threw the murder weapon.
Authorities tested the boyfriend's gun and found it was the same one used to kill Ricks, Hudson said.
Hudson's introduction to police work began as a 19-year-old Little Rock police cadet. Cadets would help with searches for juveniles, enter stolen property into a computer system and would even go undercover into liquor stores to see if they could buy alcohol, he said.
He also began to see the aftermath of violence and reality of police work. Hudson and other cadets would bring camera equipment to homicide scenes and fatal traffic accidents, he said.
"I did see a lot of bad stuff," he said.
Yet, becoming a police cadet was a natural progression for the son of a veteran North Little Rock officer, said his sister, Tammy Hudson Phillips.
"I do think for him it was a calling," she said.
Hudson grew up in a community surrounded by police.
"My street was like Copland street," he said, mentioning that a former police chief lived a few doors down and other officers lived down the street.
His father worked as a patrol officer and also as an undercover officer in the department's narcotics unit.
It was back when police used to go deep undercover, Hudson said, recalling that he would sometimes go weeks without hearing from his dad during those assignments.
"It's one of those things -- you can't do it forever because it's hard on your family," he said. "And eventually I think he realized that."
After rookie school, Hudson gained a reputation as an energetic officer, said Sgt. Allen Hamby, who started rookie school with Hudson and Lesher in the mid-1980s.
"He's always outgoing," Hamby said. "He's like a little [the] Energizer bunny."
Hudson said he was always drawn to the criminal side of police work, and knew early on in his career that he wanted to be a homicide detective.
Hudson requested a transfer to the detective division after he shot and killed a man who stabbed him in the chest with a knife in 1995.
The shock plate in his protective vest was the only thing that saved him, he said.
"It was about a month or two after that that I requested to go to the detective division," he said.
After years of working automobile thefts and robberies, Hudson landed a spot as a homicide detective.
More than 10 years later, Hudson said he knew it was time to walk away.
"I don't bounce back like I used to from a call out," he said.
One time, Hudson said the team worked on a homicide for 36 hours straight.
"Those days wear on me a little bit more now physically," he said.
The long hours can cause sleep deprivation and can take their toll on a detective, he said.
Hudson said he wanted to leave on a high note, and hopes to keep busy by teaching and possibly consulting for small departments.
"I will miss the people," he said. "I won't miss the circus."
Metro on 01/09/2017