The attorney for a Little Rock man accused of beating a security guard to death in his own home warned Pulaski County jurors on Tuesday that the state's chief witnesses are more interested in protecting themselves than telling the truth about his client.
Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for 29-year-old Calvin Thornton Jr. on capital murder and aggravated robbery charges.
Fred William Pohnka Jr., a security guard, was found dead inside his South Jackson Street home after he didn't show up for work or answer his phone in July 2015. Co-workers who went to check on him found his body in the kitchen.
Deputy prosecutor Jill Kamps told jurors seated before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims that Pohnka did not go down easily. He suffered skull fractures and severe cuts to his head, while his hands and arms showed defensive wounds, she said.
The electric cord from a space heater was loosely wrapped around his legs in crime scene photos she showed jurors. His shorts and torso were marked with bloody smears, and he lay in a pool of blood. Some of the blood looked as though he'd swiped his arm through it while fighting for his life.
Kamps told jurors that Thornton had planned to rob Pohnka with three others, but turned it into a murder by beating the 68-year-old father of three to death.
Thornton's two co-defendants, 25-year-old Malcolm Jamel Cooksey and 29-year-old Alexandria Levette Martin, will testify against him, Kamps said.
Another prosecution witness will testify that Thornton told him that he had beaten the man to death and planned to frame Cooksey, Kamps said.
"Don't let him pin it on Malcolm" Cooksey, Kamps said. "Don't let him get away with what he's done."
Cooksey pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and theft in exchange for a 50-year prison sentence, while Martin, Thornton's former girlfriend, got a 40-year prison sentence for pleading guilty to second-degree murder and robbery.
Defense attorney Willard Proctor called on jurors to be skeptical of Cooksey and Martin's motives for cooperating with prosecutors.
With no DNA or fingerprints to tie his client to the killing, jurors will have to rely solely on the testimony of prosecution witnesses to decide whether Thornton killed Pohnka, he said.
"Credibility ... for the most part, that's what this case boils down to," he said.
He asked why prosecutors would reduce the others' murder charges in exchange for their testimony. He said Martin definitely benefited because her sentence will allow her to apply for parole in 10 years.
"My client is the last man standing," Proctor said.
Proctor also asked why the third person prosecutors say was part of the robbery plan was never charged. He said jurors will hear the woman's name quite a bit during the proceedings, but 29-year-old Victoria Harton was never arrested and won't be a witness in the trial.
Proctor did not say whether his client would testify. If Thornton takes the stand, that could give prosecutors a chance to question him about his own criminal record, which includes convictions for possession of stolen property and misdemeanor battery for beating a man up in 2011. Proceedings resume at 9 a.m. today.
Metro on 03/01/2017