Witness in fatal North Little Rock shooting recalls victim's last moments

Roy Lee Boles
Roy Lee Boles

With a gun pointed at his head, 19-year-old Jevon Tyrell Shearer carefully inched a pistol out of his pants, then fired a single shot, a survivor of the February 2016 shooting that killed the Sherwood man testified on Tuesday.

Ronald Bernard Cash Jr. of Little Rock re-enacted Shearer's slow draw at the capital murder trial of Roy Lee Boles Jr.

"I seen Jevon pulling a gun out of his waist," Cash said, standing so the nine women and three men of the jury could see how he drew his hand across his belly. "He was moving pretty slow, trying to ease it out pretty slow so Roy wouldn't notice."

Boles was pointing a gun at Shearer's head while Shearer eased his gun out of his pants, Cash said, telling jurors he ran when the pistol fired.

He told jurors he didn't actually see the shooting, saying he heard a fusillade of gunshots as he ran for cover.

He said he was shot in the right hip, receiving a painful, bone-fracturing wound that required surgery and kept him hospitalized for a week.

"I didn't see nothing. I just heard the gunshots," he told jurors. "The last gunshot I heard was the one that hit me."

When he next saw Shearer, a few moments later, the man was dead in the street and Boles was running away, Cash said.

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Prosecutors Amanda Fields and Robbie Jones say Boles set Cash and Shearer up to be robbed by pretending he wanted to buy marijuana from Shearer.

The holdup attempt at West 20th and Parker streets in North Little Rock turned deadly when Shearer resisted and shot Boles, who responded by shooting Shearer three times and then fleeing, they told jurors.

North Little Rock police found Boles about two blocks way, on 18th Street, with a gunshot wound in the groin.

Boles, who was on parole for residential burglary convictions, told detectives then that he was an innocent victim caught up in the crossfire while walking.

On Tuesday, he declined to testify, and defense attorneys Cheryl Barnard and Lisa Walton-Middleton did not call any witnesses.

Proceedings before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza conclude today with closing arguments scheduled for 9:30 a.m.

Testifying for more than two hours, Cash described how he met up with Shearer in a Sherwood hotel that night, then went along with Shearer and another man on Shearer's trip to sell marijuana, mainly because he needed a ride home to Little Rock.

He told jurors that Boles had met with Shearer in the parking lot in front of the Dollar General on Pike Avenue to buy marijuana. Cash said he didn't see Boles before the man got into the borrowed black Chevrolet Trailblazer he, Shearer and the other man were in.

Once inside the sport utility vehicle, Boles examined the marijuana but decided he didn't like it and didn't want to buy it, Cash said. Still, he and Shearer agreed to give Boles a lift home when the man asked for a ride, the 26-year-old Cash testified.

Cash said he was driving the three other men as Boles directed him to Boles' home. He said Boles suddenly told him to pull over and that when he did, Boles asked if the men would like to take a look at his car, gesturing to a nearby vehicle, Cash said.

Shearer and Boles then opened their doors, Cash told jurors, saying Shearer had just put his feet on the ground when Boles pointed the gun at the man's head.

"I heard somebody say, 'give me everything.' I looked up and I seen the gun in Jevon's face," Cash said. "But it looked like it was pointed at me."

The fourth man in the vehicle ran just before Cash saw Boles' weapon and realized what was going on, he told jurors.

The two men were face to face, at most 4 inches apart inside the crook of the open front passenger door of the SUV, Cash said.

Then Shearer went for his gun, moving slowly, Cash told jurors. The man had barely gotten the pistol clear of his waistband when he fired the gun, the weapon aiming downward. Running from the SUV, Cash said he heard 10 to 15 gunshots. Investigators say they found evidence of 10.

Disputing defense accusations that he was lying about what happened, Cash told jurors he'd told the truth to the best of his ability. Cash acknowledged he couldn't clearly remember everything that happened and all of what he told police, but said he'd been in severe pain and sick from his medication when detectives questioned him about the killing.

"I believe Jevon's family deserves justice," he said.

Court records show that Cash has been on probation since April 2016 after pleading guilty to second-degree battery, reduced from first-degree battery, for shooting a man, David Isiah Womack, in Sherwood in November 2014.

Metro on 06/21/2017

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