6:15 P.M. UPDATE:
Tensions rose late in the first day of the murder trial of a central Arkansas restauranteur as attorneys questioned witnesses and the defense tried to cast doubt on the investigation.
Quenton King, the 38-year-old man accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend, Megan Price, in June 2015, showed little emotion as witnesses from the Little Rock Police Department took the stand and attorneys showed photographs of the gunshot wounds in the 36-year-old woman's head to the jury.
The third witness to take the stand was John Alston, an investigator with the North Little Rock Police Department who went to the crime scene after Price’s body was found.
Defense attorney Ron Davis asked why Alston did not investigate how long it would have taken for the candles found near Price’s body to burn down in order to better determine the time of her death. Alston said the police department had not asked him to do so.
Davis then asked why detectives did not look for DNA on a cup found near Price’s body.
Alston said he was not the lead detective on the case and that he didn't know if the cup had been taken into evidence.
“Let’s be straight now, it would be important, wouldn’t it?” Davis asked, arguing that the cup could have had DNA of someone other than King.
“It could be important,” Alston said.
The state prosecutor called several objections as Davis cast doubt on the investigator’s findings.
Shortly before 4:30 p.m., Judge Herbert Wright dismissed the jurors for a 20-minute break, then addressed legal counsel, calling for no more objections.
“We’re gonna get along. We’re gonna take a deep breath. We’re gonna get through this,” Wright said.
The prosecutor said Davis’ questions had been argumentative and that he was doing “damage control” by objecting.
The trial continued with Davis questioning Alston about what kind of projectiles — bullets or casings —were found near Price’s body, with Alston asking for clarifications multiple times.
Davis later asked why Alston had an easier time answering the state’s questions than his.
The fourth witness was Adam Craig, a forensic pathologist at the state Crime Laboratory who performed the autopsies on Price and the fetus.
Craig said one of Price’s gunshot wounds appeared to have been from a bullet shot from a weapon pressed to her head, while the other two were shot from “intermediate range.”
The state prosecutor asked if it was possible that Price was lying facedown with the shooter standing over her. Craig said yes.
The trial will resume at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Read Wednesday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
— Rachel Herzog
3:50 P.M. UPDATE:
In the opening statements of the murder trial of a central Arkansas restaurateur, a prosecutor recounted the last moments of the man's pregnant girlfriend and the defense asked the jury to release the man "from this nightmare."
Quenton King, 38, faces two counts of capital murder in the June 26, 2015, slayings of 36-year-old Megan Price and her unborn child. Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence.
Deputy prosecutor Jeanna Sherrill addressed the jury first, explaining that Price and King both had plans for that June weekend.
Price, who had made a Facebook post that week saying that King was the father of her unborn child, planned to spend the weekend at her North Little Rock home with King, Sherrill said.
King’s plan, Sherrill said, was not to lose his wife.
“His plan was to go over there, knowing no one else was going to be there but Megan Price and he was going to kill her,” Sherrill told the jury.
King would later delete the Facebook post and spend the rest of the weekend in Eudora, Sherrill said. But he told a friend what he had done, and the friend told police, the prosecutor said.
In his opening statement, defense attorney Ron Davis questioned that friend’s reliability. He pointed out parts of the story that did not add up, such as why King would have thrown the gun into a lake in southwest Little Rock after leaving a home in North Little Rock.
Davis told the jury to pay attention to the witnesses and remember that there was no known time of death for Price. He asked them to “release Mr. King from this nightmare.”
The first witness was Keona Rouse, Price’s daughter, who began to cry when Sherrill started questioning her about finding her mother dead that Sunday morning after spending the weekend with her boyfriend.
Rouse, who was 20 at the time of her mother’s death, confirmed that Price had been seeing King intermittently for about 14 years and that she was seeing him in December 2014, when she would have gotten pregnant.
Rouse said King spent some nights at her mother’s house, but never a full weekend, so her mother was “more than likely” excited about it.
Two more witnesses, Tommy Norman and John Alston, who both worked for the North Little Rock Police Department at the time of Price’s death, were called Tuesday afternoon to review photographs of the crime scene and the layout of the home where Price was killed.
EARLIER:
The trial of a central Arkansas restaurateur accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend began Tuesday morning.
Chicken King owner Quenton King, 38, of Scott faces two counts of capital murder in the June 26, 2015, slayings of 36-year-old Megan Price and her unborn child. Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence.
King’s trial is expected to last three days before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herbert Wright in Little Rock.
Authorities say King fired three shots into Price’s head at her home in North Little Rock. He was arrested nine days after the discovery of her naked body.
Police said King and Price had been in a 14-year relationship, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported. Before her shooting death, Price had posted to Facebook that she was pregnant with King’s child.
The state and King’s defense team had discussed a potential plea deal in the days leading up to his trial but no formal agreement had been reached by Tuesday.
King, dressed in a white plaid-patterned button-up shirt, vest and dark-colored pants, acknowledged the possibility of an offer, and told the court that he understood the charges before him.
Shortly after 10 a.m., the court began jury selection.
In a heated discussion with Wright, defense attorney Ron Davis said that he was not told explicitly before trial of the timing for challenging the 73 case-related exhibits.
“You’re picking a fight on an ancillary issue,” Wright said.
Davis specifically referenced an issue with the credibility of a Facebook post that would be used during trial.
“This man’s life is on the line,” Davis said, adding that Wright was “trying to dress me down.”
In June 2016, Wright barred prosecutors from using the testimony of two federal inmates, referred to by the defense as “jailhouse snitches.”
The inmates said they had heard King complain about Price and said in court that the restaurateur wanted her dead.
Deputy prosecutor Jeanna Sherrill said the men could prove the state’s theory of the killing, which included that King’s relationship with Price had taken a negative turn and that his wife might find out about their relationship. Davis, meanwhile, argued that the inmates’ testimony would do more to paint his client in a negative light than provide information in Price’s slaying.
King co-owns Chicken King restaurants in North Little Rock and Little Rock with his wife of more than 15 years.
— Brandon Riddle
Information for this article was contributed by John Lynch of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.