Arkansas man who claimed to be 'black ops' killer gets 40 years in fatal shooting at North Little Rock home

Christopher Maines
Christopher Maines

Three days before his 47th birthday, a Beebe man who had claimed he was a professional "black ops" killer accepted a 40-year prison sentence on Monday for fatally shooting a 24-year-old Jacksonville man in front of the victim's girlfriend and others more than two years ago.

Deputy prosecutor Ashley Clancy said Christopher Maines pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, reduced from capital murder, in exchange for a 40-year sentence that will require him to serve 31 years before he can apply for parole.

Maines was arrested shortly after Corey Dersheid's May 2015 slaying at a home on Walter Place in North Little Rock. Two women, Dersheid's girlfriend Ashley Loyd, and a resident of the house, Jessica Rudd, told police that they saw Maines shoot Dersheid, a father of one, in the head.

A third witness, Jimmy Miller Sr. of North Little Rock, said he was outside when he heard a single gunshot inside the home then saw Maines walking out of the house. Maines' wife, Peggy, had also been in the house but told police she didn't see anything and had no idea her husband was going to shoot Dersheid.

Jacob Barrera, a friend of Maines, said he was also outside and heard the shot. Maines had also shown him a pistol earlier that day, Barrera told police. Maines told him "it had to be done," when he asked Maines why he shot Dersheid, Barrera said.

Police said no one at the home saw anything go on between the men leading up to the slaying, with witnesses saying they had barely spoken to each other.

Maines initially denied any wrongdoing but pressed by detectives said that he didn't know Dersheid but that the younger man had made a series of disparaging comments about Barrera and himself.

The case has taken so long to resolve due to questions about Maines' sanity by his defense attorney, Cheryl Barnard. Maines had told police he was a Marine five-star general or a lieutenant who has fought in secret "black ops" military operations all over the world, including Afghanistan, Vietnam, Panama, Iraq and Somalia. He told doctors he had a "classified" device implanted in his heart by the military.

Initially found unfit for trial, Maines spent 10 months in the Arkansas State Hospital before state doctors diagnosed him as competent. Circuit Judge Herb Wright deemed him fit for trial in a July 2016 hearing.

A second mental exam this year concluded that he was exaggerating by reporting "very extreme and uncommon symptoms, rare combinations of symptoms and severe and unusual psychotic symptoms."

Monday, Dersheid's mother, Danielle King, told the judge her oldest son was a "beautiful person" with a "heart of gold" who was a loving son, doting father to daughter Alyssa and devoted brother to Keith Dersheid. King said that he was also a talented musician who took his friends into his heart.

"Corey did not have friends," she said. "He considered them all family."

Metro on 10/17/2017

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