A Pulaski County circuit judge on Thursday set bail at $2 million -- twice the amount requested by prosecutors -- for a North Little Rock man who was arrested after a shootout with police and is accused of crimes that include holding a gun to a baby's head during a robbery.
Lamar Deshone Moore, 28, is charged with 17 felonies related to two July 2015 home invasions in North Little Rock in which the robber showed a badge and claimed to be a Little Rock police officer.
Deputy prosecutor Martinque Parker said that in one of the robberies, the badge-wearing gunman put a pistol to a 6-month-old's head and threatened to pull the trigger if the boy's parents didn't turn over their money, jewelry and drugs fast enough.
Moore was a parole absconder for armed-robbery convictions when he was arrested almost two weeks after a July 30, 2015, exchange of gunfire at an England home with police and federal marshals.
Parker said Moore would be a danger to the community if released. She asked for bail of $1 million.
Moore's attorney, Willard Proctor, had petitioned the court to set bail. Moore had never asked for bail before because he had been returned to prison, but he has since been paroled again, Proctor said.
The attorney said Moore was not asking for bail to be released from jail into the community but so he could enter a therapeutic rehabilitation program for treatment of his long-standing mental problems.
Jailers are not giving Moore his prescription medication, which is causing him to have a hard time preparing for his August trial, Proctor said.
Moore is charged with two counts of aggravated residential burglary, two counts of criminal impersonation and six counts each of aggravated robbery and theft, plus aggravated assault.
Special Circuit Judge John Langston said Moore is constitutionally entitled to bail, but based on his criminal past, the charges and evidence against him, the amount would be $2 million.
The robberies occurred four nights apart at homes about 5 miles from each other, both about 9:30 p.m. and each involving a badge-wearing man in a plaid shirt and khaki pants, the prosecutor told the judge.
In the first robbery, a man accosted Anthony Ragland, 30, in front of his Maryland Avenue home in the Forest Hills neighborhood just as he, his wife, Krystle White, 30, and four children were getting out of their car.
The robber, wearing a gun holster on his hip, told Ragland that police were raiding the home for drugs, patted the man down for weapons, and made the family go inside.
The robber was a stranger, but knew Ragland's nickname. He demanded the couple give him money and drugs, then grew irate when the Raglands said they didn't have anything to give him.
He threatened to shoot their children if they didn't comply, and the couple was able to give him $77. He also took some of their electronics, a gun and some marijuana.
During the holdup, White's parents, Crawford and Joanne Matthews, arrived at the home and were robbed at gunpoint in their car, the prosecutor said.
When the robber struck at the Twin Lakes home of Lewis Bunting and Ladetra Walls, the gunman had two accomplices, one of whom used an electric stun gun on Bunting.
Bunting, 40, was awakened by someone knocking on the door that led from the carport. When Bunting opened the door, he saw a man with a badge who said he needed to talk to Bunting, then pulled a gun on him and shoved his way inside.
The two men with the badge-wearing man forced Bunting to the ground. Bunting yelled for Walls, who was in their bedroom, to call 911. Bunting was shocked with the stun gun while trying to resist the robbers.
The man who had the badge ran into the room where the 32-year-old mother and the couple's 6-month-old son were, pointed the gun at the baby and told Walls to drop the phone.
He then put the pistol to the child's head and said he'd kill the boy if she did not tell him where the couple kept the cash. There were two other children in the house as well.
The three robbers fled with about $200, jewelry and some prescription medication.
Four days after the robbery, police were able to get arrest warrants for Moore after getting information that he had been trying to sell some of Bunting's things, court filings show.
Moore eluded Little Rock police during a car and foot pursuit that began in Little Rock at the McDonald's at 8708 Fourche Dam and reached to 14th and Orange streets in North Little Rock.
A week later, a team of Little Rock police, U.S. marshals, England police and a special response team from Arkansas Community Correction tracked Moore to a Washington Street home in England.
The gunfire exchange with the posse ended when Moore shot himself in the stomach.
Metro on 05/26/2017