Xavier Terrell Porter, the last of three teenagers accused of capital murder for the ambush-slaying of another teen at the Sherwood recreation center, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday for aggravated robbery.
Porter was 17 at the time and the oldest of the three accused. The 18-year-old defendant admitted in court Tuesday that he had lured 17-year-old victim, Bryan Allen Thompson of Sherwood, to the Bill Harmon Recreation Center to be robbed in April 2016.
Porter also admitted that he provided the .38-caliber revolver used in the slaying by his cousin, Quincy Parks, 15 at the time.
Porter knew Thompson because they'd worked together at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant in North Little Rock, deputy prosecutor Ashley Clancy told Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright. Porter was arrested at the eatery the night after the killing.
Parks ended up shooting Thompson in the throat after taking about $15 from him but leaving behind his marijuana.
Authorities said Porter had left the Shelby Road center before the shooting.
Thompson's body was found behind the wheel of his car by a recreation center employee the next morning.
Under the plea arrangement negotiated by defense attorney Ron Davis, Porter pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery in exchange for a 10-year prison sentence, the minimum penalty.
The capital-murder charge was dropped, and Porter will have to serve at least seven years before he can qualify for parole.
His plea comes a week after Parks' guilty plea to aggravated robbery and first-degree murder, reduced from capital murder, in exchange for a 20-year sentence that will require him to spend at least 14 years behind bars.
Parks is the only one of the teens to be convicted of murder.
The first of the three to be arrested, Trevone Hayse Miller who was 14 at the time, had his aggravated-robbery case transferred to juvenile court in October after giving a sworn statement about what he'd witnessed and promising to testify against his co-defendants.
Miller, who said he was carrying a BB pistol, was in the back seat of Thompson's car when Parks, who had been in the front seat, got out of the vehicle and suddenly shot Thompson.
Sherwood police identified Parks as the killer almost immediately, based on surveillance video from the recreation center, text messages investigators found on Parks and Porter's phones, and statements Porter and Miller gave to detectives.
Police reported finding the weapon in the North Little Rock home that Parks and Porter shared.
Metro on 05/31/2017