A Little Rock man who was seen on surveillance video shooting two men at a Wright Avenue convenience store in 2015 pleaded guilty Friday to a related federal gun charge.
Andre Demetrius Smalley Jr., 32, admitted that a 9mm Ruger pistol found in the center console of a maroon 2012 Chrysler 200 that he was driving when he was pulled over about 11:45 p.m. April 5, 2015, was the same gun he was filmed firing two hours earlier during a fight outside Our Community Market at 1901 Wright Ave.
As a convicted felon, Smalley wasn't allowed to possess a handgun. He pleaded guilty to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, for which he faces sentencing at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 15 before U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr.
In late July 2015, Smalley pleaded guilty in Pulaski County Circuit Court to a first-degree battery charge, admitting that he shot Javian Booth, then 22, in the lower right leg outside the convenience store. In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped related second-degree battery and drug charges.
All the charges stemmed from a brawl outside the store that also left Booth clubbed in the head and Booth's friend, 21-year-old Anthony Atkins, with a gunshot wound in the buttocks.
According to court documents and an account of the fracas read aloud in court by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ed Walker, Booth and Atkins told police that they were at the Community Market gas pumps when an unknown man, accompanied by two other men, one of whom was later identified as Smalley, walked up and asked if they had any "loud," referring to marijuana. The victims laughed and said no.
One of the three questioners then "got mad" because of the laughter and because one of the victims was wearing a red hat, according to an affidavit written by an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It says the three men identified themselves as members of the Crips gang and said, "This is our territory," and "We're going to make it like the 1990s," when gang violence was prevalent in Little Rock.
After a brawl that was filmed by the store's closed-circuit camera, Booth and Atkins got back in their car and drove to a hospital while the men who called themselves gang members fled in the Chrysler.
Police spotted the Chrysler at 11:44 p.m. at 12th and Woodrow streets and pulled it over for failure to use a turn signal. The affidavit said Smalley was driving and had one passenger, Anthony Ashby, both of whom matched the descriptions of the suspects in the video.
Although the victims didn't want to participate in a photo lineup that night, prompting police to release Smalley on traffic citations and release Ashby without charges, police seized the car because Smalley was found to have a suspended driver's license and the car wasn't insured.
After obtaining a search warrant the next day, police found the 9mm pistol and assorted 9mm ammunition inside the vehicle and obtained a warrant for Smalley's arrest on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Shortly after 11 p.m. on April 10, 2015, according to the reports, police spotted Smalley driving and arrested him on the warrant. Inside the car, police said, they found a small amount of marijuana, a set of scales and a .223-caliber rifle.
Smalley was charged with an additional count of being a felon in possession of a firearm for having the rifle, but on Friday, Marshall approved the dismissal of that second charge in exchange for Smalley's guilty plea.
Smalley had been set for a jury trial on both charges Aug. 28.
According to court records, his past convictions include a federal felon in possession of a firearm charge for which he was sentenced to nearly four years in prison, a revocation of his probation on that charge in 2010 that resulted in a 14-month sentence and a host of state charges including first-degree escape, second-degree battery and theft by receiving.
Smalley also had been facing a trial in early 2015 in Pulaski County Circuit Court on aggravated robbery charges that were filed April 17, 2014, but those charges were dropped after Smalley's accuser, T.C. Edwards, a local musician, was found shot to death. No one has been arrested in Edwards' slaying, though his friends, who regularly attend Smalley's court hearings, have offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to a conviction.
Mike Poe of Little Rock, who said he considered Edwards to be his brother, attended Friday's federal court hearing. Edwards was autistic and lacked family support, so Poe said he was Edwards' caretaker for about two years until his death on Dec. 7, 2014, after he left a local bar, Pizza D'Action, to walk to his nearby home.
"I'm representing my family and my community," Poe said. "We miss our murdered brother, T.C. Edwards, and are seeking justice for his death."
Metro on 05/20/2017