An 18-year-old North Little Rock man, charged in three robberies, must stand trial as an adult, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson ruled Wednesday.
Johnson said he was sympathetic to Mel Deshun Jones Jr. for the struggles the young man has gone through while trying to cope with the March 2016 slaying of his mother in Lonoke County.
But the judge said he could not move the cases to juvenile court because of the number of crimes attributed to the teen, one of which involved a victim's beating, and because of police testimony that Jones has implicated himself in the holdups and been identified by one victim as the man who held a knife to his throat.
Jones was 17 at the time of the robberies. He turned 18 in December. Deputy prosecutor Nicholas Lorigan argued that Jones should be prosecuted as an adult because the juvenile-justice system, which could hold him for only three years, has little to offer a defendant who has reached 18.
Jones has been jailed since his Aug. 21 arrest, about two weeks after the last robbery. The police description of the holdups indicates a pattern:
A Hispanic man less than fluent in English somehow comes in contact through Facebook with a young woman who corresponds with the victim for some time, even days. Investigators have identified the same 16-year-old girl in at least two of the robberies.
The conversation typically revolves around sex, usually for money, but one man said she offered to exchange sex for a meal or a hotel room. The girl sent one of the men nude photographs of herself, according to testimony.
The girl then invites the victim to pick her up somewhere to go have sex. The victim arrives, and the girl gets into his vehicle. At least two other people get into the car, as well. The victim is forced, sometimes by gun or knife, to give up his money and, on two occasions, his car.
Jones is the only person charged in all three robberies, which occurred in North Little Rock over a three-week span between July and August, according to reports.
North Little Rock detective Gary Jones testified that Alejandro Mireles was robbed on Aug. 8. Mireles reportedly told police that he'd gone to 1133 Healy St. to pick up the girl for sex. The girl got into his car, but so did a woman and a man, whom he later identified as Mel Jones, according to reports.
Detectives said Mireles told them that he agreed to take the pair to a convenience store, then drop them off somewhere. Mel Jones, who had been sitting behind Mireles, put a knife to his throat, then forced him to give up his money and made him get out of the Jeep, he told officers.
Mel Jones first denied involvement, the detective said, but then admitted to being in the vehicle, saying he'd been dropped off somewhere before anything had happened to Mireles.
The second robbery occurred July 24, when Cristhian Cobes-Lopez, 23, of Sherwood was held up at gunpoint. Cobes-Lopez said the girl had called him to pick her up at 2512 Arkansas 161 so they could go have sex, detective Robert Branch testified.
The girl got into his car, and she was joined by at least two others, Branch said, telling the judge that Cobes-Lopez was not clear on exactly how many people were involved.
Cobes-Lopez said the girl told him she wanted $200 for sex. But he could withdraw only $100 at a time, so he drove to two ATMs to get the money. After Cobes-Lopez obtained the full amount, Mel Jones took it from him after showing him a gun, the detective said.
The second withdrawal was made at the Walmart store on East McCain Boulevard, and surveillance video shows Cobes-Lopez accompanied by Mel Jones and a woman, possibly the girl, entering and exiting the store, Branch said.
Jones has two co-defendants in the first robbery -- the July 18 robbery of Francisco Ramos-Rodriguez, 28, of North Little Rock. Ramos-Rodriguez said he was directed to the Chapel Ridge Apartments at 5900 McCain Place to meet the girl. When he arrived, three men pulled him out of his car and beat him up, stealing his money, jewelry and Nissan Xterra, sheriff's Deputy Michael Bryant testified.
Investigators also arrested two 17-year-old residents at the apartments -- Jeremy Lamean Phifer and Talayasia Sarai Aldridge. Phifer led deputies to Mel Jones, who said he did take the car but denied taking part in the attack, according to reports.
Court records show that Aldridge is currently considered a fugitive. A warrant was issued Dec. 18 after she failed to show up for her arraignment.
Jones' father, Mel Jones, 38, and the teen's paternal grandmother, Wanda Jones, told the judge that the teen has struggled emotionally for the past two years because of the sudden and violent death of his mother, Stephanie Conley, 39, in March 2016. She was shot to death at her Lonoke County home by her uncle, Arnold Wayne Justice, who is now serving a 40-year prison sentence for first-degree murder.
The teen and his mother had a distant relationship for much of his life because of Conley's drug problems, but she appeared to have overcome her addiction and had repaired her relationship with him, the family testified.
The teen's grief has been especially overwhelming because he was supposed to have been visiting her on the day she was killed, and he believes he could have saved her if he'd been there, the family said. He'd been a good student before his mother died and had never been in trouble with the law before he was arrested on the robbery charges, they said.
The younger Mel Jones had been doing well in therapy but dropped out of counseling a couple of months before the robberies during a period of destabilizing turmoil within the family, according to testimony.
His father said he and his wife separated for a while during that time, which upset his son, and then Wanda Jones, who had adopted and raised him, developed a debilitating brain aneurysm that required surgery.
During this time, the family allowed the teen to live with an adult cousin, where he met Aldridge, whom they knew only distantly, the relatives said.
Metro on 02/02/2018