Jurors clear Little Rock man in stabbing death of friend

A 54-year-old Little Rock man who accidentally stabbed a close friend has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing by a Pulaski County jury.

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The seven men and five women deliberated less than 90 minutes Tuesday to acquit James Ivory "Bear" Smith for Leroy Hamilton's December 2015 death.

Defense attorney Mark Hampton said Hamilton's death was a "terrible tragedy" caused by "a horribly unfortunate accident" that involved Hamilton falling on Smith's blade during a cookout at Hamilton's Knollwood Road home.

The knife wound did not pierce any organs, a sure sign that the cut was not intentional, Hampton told jurors.

He asked jurors to consider the possibility that Hamilton's sudden death was more likely due to the quality of care he was receiving.

And he questioned whether witnesses could be believed, noting that some of them appeared to have significantly changed details in their stories since they talked to police.

Injured the day after his 53rd birthday, Hamilton went to the hospital, where he died five days later after exploratory surgery on the wound.

Prosecutors conceded Smith had not deliberately acted to harm Hamilton. They contended that Smith, for the way he had been holding the knife when Hamilton was hurt, was guilty of reckless manslaughter, a felony that carries a 10-year maximum prison term, or at least misdemeanor negligent homicide.

"When you get a knife out when you've been drinking [alcohol], that's reckless," deputy prosecutor Jennifer Corbin told jurors. "The defendant told you he carries a knife, which he keeps sharp. This all happened because he stabbed Leroy Hamilton while he was drinking."

Hamilton, a volunteer coach with the Southwest Saints pee-wee football league, was preparing food with fellow volunteers for the elementary-school-age children's end-of-season banquet the next day.

Hamilton and Smith, like others in the group, had been drinking beer but no one could agree whether anyone was drunk.

Hamilton got cut when he stepped between Smith and a young mother of two known only as Cricket to break up a raucous and profane argument between them. Somehow, he fell onto Smith and was stuck in the side by Smith's lock-blade knife.

Hampton re-enacted Smith's version of events three times for jurors over the course of the two-day trial.

Hampton sat on a 5-gallon bucket in opening statements to show how his client had been so seated while cleaning his fingernails with the lock-blade knife.

Hampton also had prosecution witness Rayvon Foster, the only one who saw what happened between the men, demonstrate with Foster seated on the bucket.

Smith also sat on the bucket to show jurors how he was sitting with his head down, digging at his nails while continuing to bicker with the woman. Smith said he heard Hamilton telling both of them to quiet down, but with his head down, he never saw Hamilton walk up to him.

Somehow the man fell on him, Smith testified.

"I got hit and he was right on top of me," Smith said. "I pushed him off me and I got up. When I pushed him off, the knife must've went in."

Smith said he and Hamilton were as close as brothers for years, hanging out almost daily, talking, drinking beer, fishing or cooking on the grill.

"Wherever he was at, I was at," Smith said. "Wherever I was at, he was at."

Smith denounced as lies testimony from prosecution witnesses that he had been on top of Hamilton when the man was stabbed, that others at the party had to forcefully wrest the knife from him or that he'd told other people that he'd stabbed Hamilton in self-defense.

Prosecutors contended that Smith was guilty because Hamilton wouldn't have needed surgery if Smith hadn't stuck him with his knife. To acquit Smith, jurors would have to believe only Smith had told the truth and that every other witness was lying, deputy prosecutor Robbie Jones said.

"He never told anyone else it was an accident," Jones said. "He introduced a knife to a swearing match."

Metro on 03/30/2017

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