The case against a Little Rock teenager accused of shooting a 7-year-old boy in June is so weak he should be released without having to post bail to await trial, his lawyers said last week.
But police call Cavorontre Green a gang member who wounded the boy while attempting a spur-of-the-moment assassination of a rival, and defense attorneys Lou Marczuk and Maryann Furrer could not persuade Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson to reduce the 18-year-old's $500,000 bail at a bond hearing.
Deputy prosecutor Michael Wright, opposing bail reduction for Green, told the judge during the 25-minute hearing that he had not completely tipped his hand on the evidence police have gathered on Green.
Green and co-defendant Nykian Raines, 20, were arrested on charges of first-degree battery and unlawful discharge of a firearm about a week after 7-year-old Le'Darren Calais was shot in the left arm while playing in front of his grandmother's Washington Street home.
Several children were outside playing when Le'Darren was wounded in a fusillade of bullets that hit a car and his grandmother's house. The woman's neighbors were also outdoors having a backyard gathering when the gunfire broke out, detective Kendall Harper told the judge.
Green and Raines are members of the Monroe Street Hustlers, who were driving south on Washington Street when they saw Keshawn "Chunky" Kelly, who is with the Highland Park Piru, an ally of the Bloods gang, near the intersection of 11th and Washington streets, the detective said.
Green opened fire with an SKS assault-style rifle while Raines drove, Harper testified.
On cross-examination, Harper acknowledged that there is no physical evidence against the men and that police have not found the gun used in the shooting.
A surveillance video from a Hess convenience store down the street shows the car passing by, pausing by the shooting scene, then driving off, but it does not show who was in the car, Harper said.
Asked about the teen's criminal history, Harper said he's only aware of two arrests in 2014, when Green would have been a juvenile.
Court records show Green has been on probation since May 2016 on a felony criminal mischief conviction from Chicot County, stemming from his arrest at age 16 in October 2015.
Details of the allegations against him were not available, but records show he was incarcerated in a juvenile-justice program before pleading guilty to the charge and being placed on probation for five years. Prosecutors dropped a misdemeanor count of inciting a riot in exchange for the plea.
Green did not testify in the hearing on Sept. 25, but his mother, Shanda Green, told the judge that Green would come and live with her and his sister if his bail was set at a more affordable amount.
Green had been attending McClellan High School when he was arrested while also holding down a part-time job, she said, telling the judge he's regularly employed.
If released, the younger Green planned to enroll in a program to get his General Educational Development diploma, his mother testified.
Questioned by the prosecutor, she told the judge that her son had been living with a friend when he was arrested, but that she did not know the friend's full name.
Metro on 10/04/2017