Little Rock man acquitted in 2017 shooting; accuser acknowledges she didn’t give police complete story

A 25-year-old Little Rock man accused of shooting at his stepson's grandmother last May was acquitted by a Pulaski County jury on Tuesday after the woman acknowledged she wasn't completely truthful with police.

After a one-day trial before Judge Herb Wright, jurors deliberated about 30 minutes to clear Dartrell Ramone Williams of charges of child endangerment and unlawful discharge of a firearm that could have forced him to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Deputy prosecutor Justin Brown told jurors Williams had fired several shots at Kowitha Gray, with one bullet piercing the hood of her 2013 black Toyota Camry, just in front of where the 54-year-old woman was sitting in the vehicle.

But Williams' attorney John Landis questioned whether there had even been a shooting at all that May 13 night, telling jurors police had little proof of gunfire at the location, a barber shop at the intersection of West Roosevelt and South Gaines streets.

Landis told jurors that Williams was with his family at a Mother's Day party when the shooting was supposed to have taken place, about 9:20 p.m. Mother's Day was May 14 last year.

Gray, 54, told jurors she had taken her 2-year-old grandson Mason and the boy's father, her son, Clarence Tarvaus Mixon Jr., at Mixon's request to get the toddler's hair cut. She said she pulled up in front next to the car where Williams and his wife, Breaunna Peoples, were sitting. Peoples is the child's mother.

Gray said her son and Peoples started arguing and wouldn't stop despite her efforts to calm them.

The toddler was eventually moved into Williams' car, Gray said. But the bickering continued, which frustrated Gray so much that she drove off, leaving the 32-year-old Mixon. She said she only went a couple of blocks before having a change of heart and returning to the shop to get him.

Gray testified that when she returned, parking next to Williams' car, the defendant opened his car door, showing he had a pistol sitting on his thigh.

She said Peoples got back into the car and Williams abruptly backed the vehicle, with the little boy in the back seat, across the four-lane street and started shooting. In a panic, she tried to get her son back in her car, but fumbled with the car door locks as she watched Mixon trying to dodge bullets.

Gray couldn't say how many shots were fired but that it was several. She said she got Mixon into her car and they left to go home.

But they argued on the way back, Gray testified, saying she was so angry with Mixon that she made him get out of the car near the intersection of Asher and Roosevelt roads.

She said she never saw her son with a gun but acknowledged she had seen him pick "something" up outside the barbershop. Gray said she never saw what it was her son had.

Gray never told police about that, Landis said. He called the omission a lie, and Gray agreed that it was.

"You didn't tell the detective the full story, which is kind of like lying," he said. "You lied to police."

Gray told jurors she's known Williams for awhile and that he's even visited her home, saying he's always been kind and respectful. She said her son was the real target.

Mixon had initially been considered a victim but was dropped from the case after being arrested in Little Rock with a gun and 10 pounds of cocaine two weeks after the shooting. Mixon is barred from owning a gun because of his criminal history, which dates back to 2003, and includes convictions for drug possession, escape, firearm possession, fleeing and aggravated assault.

Arrested the same day as* Mixon were two suspected drug dealers, Homero Cerda Jr., 39, of Little Rock and Noe Mota, 34, of Houston, Texas. Mixon was indicted on a felon with a firearm charge in December while Cerda and Mota face separate drug-trafficking indictments.

Williams' criminal history meant that he would not have been eligible for parole if he had been convicted as charged for child endangerment and five counts of unlawful discharge of a firearm, which together carried up to 300 years in prison for a habitual offender like him.

His criminal history includes convictions for second-degree battery, failure to appear and residential burglary convictions in Garland, Lonoke and Pulaski counties. In 2010, when he was 18, Williams was sent to prison for eight years for assaulting a Pulaski County sheriff's deputy in juvenile detention while trying to start an uprising among other teens.

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Metro on 04/12/2018

*CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly described the May 27 arrest of 32-year-old Clarence Tarvaus Mixon Jr. of Little Rock. Mixon was arrested as a felon with a gun at 402 Shady Lane in Little Rock while Homero Cerda Jr., 39, of Little Rock and Noe Mota, 34, of Houston, Texas, were arrested during a traffic stop that same day in the 5300 block of South University Avenue. The three men were arrested by Little Rock police working with agents of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

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