A 34-year-old Little Rock man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a Conway man while stealing the victim's truck.
Quincy Barnard Hughes pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on Monday before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson, said deputy prosecutor Scott Duncan.
Hughes had been scheduled to stand trial this week in the February 2016 slaying of Mark Alan Hamby, 52, a father of two and the owner of Mark's Custom Car Care in Conway.
Hughes, jailed since his arrest, was taken into custody about three hours after the critically wounded Hamby was found behind an East 10th Street home.
[INTERACTIVE MAP: See all 2016 killings in Little Rock]
Witnesses told police they had seen Hughes driving Hamby's red 2004 Chevrolet 1500 pickup by that house. Hamby was in the passenger seat with Kim Sullivan in the back seat
Sullivan told police that Hughes and Hamby had argued over drugs, with the quarrel turning violent when Hughes started stabbing Hamby.
Sullivan directed investigators to the Sportsmen's Inn on East Broadway in North Little Rock, where officers found Hamby's pickup, then arrested Hughes in his hotel room, also seizing crack cocaine in the room.
Hughes told detectives that he had gone to the 10th Street home because he was feeling lonely after a night of drinking and using crack cocaine, a binge he undertook after being fired.
He said he had "rented" Hamby's truck in exchange for some cocaine. The two men had gone driving around together, with Hughes behind the wheel, and they eventually picked up Sullivan, Hughes told police.
They returned to the 10th Street home and parked outside, according to police reports. Hughes said he then noticed he was missing some "stuff," and accused Hamby of taking it.
Hamby denied taking anything belonging to Hughes, which led to an argument. Hughes told police he stabbed Hamby with a pocketknife when the older man began choking him, he said.
Hamby let him go, Hughes told detectives, and he helped Hamby to the back porch of the home, knocked on a window, called for homeowner Willie Gibson to come out, then left in the pickup with Sullivan.
Sullivan went with him willingly to a hotel where he checked in, gave her "some stuff" and fell asleep, he said, telling detectives he woke up when police arrived.
Court records show Hughes has been either behind bars or on probation or parole for most of the past 14 years, mostly for drug possession or drug dealing.
In February 2015, he received a three-year suspended sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm after his November 2013 arrest in Little Rock with a stolen gun.
Hughes, who was on parole then, had been arrested by police investigating a car break-in near Rock Street and Daisy Bates Drive who saw him in the area acting suspiciously. He had the loaded gun tucked into his pants.
Metro on 02/02/2018