North Little Rock teen jailed in killing called gang member during unsuccessful bid to lower bail

Criminal history is raised at hearing

Shaquan Markell Thompson, one of two North Little Rock teenagers accused in a January slaying, is a suspected gang member who spent about 18 months in a Texas youth lockup for robbery, aggravated robbery and marijuana possession, according to court testimony.

The 18-year-old Thompson, jailed for the past three months, had petitioned Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson to reduce his $500,000 bail.

Johnson declined Tuesday to lower the teen's bail, citing his past criminal history.

Thompson and co-defendant Typaris Rome Johnson, 18, were arrested on first-degree murder charges in March, about six weeks after 58-year-old Allen Ray McGuire was shot to death inside a friend's home at the Summertree Apartments on Summertree Drive in North Little Rock.

There were three or four children in the apartment when McGuire was killed in January, detective Michael Gibbons told the judge Tuesday.

Patrol officers investigating a call about gunfire at the apartments found McGuire dead on a couch with a gun in his hand.

Police collected seven shell casings, and three bullets were taken from McGuire's body, Gibbons testified. Ballistics tests showed two guns had been used.

There was no evidence that McGuire had fired his gun, the detective said.

The apartment's tenant told police that McGuire was visiting her that evening and that they had been hanging out, smoking marijuana, while the children played in another room.

Some other people dropped in over the course of the evening -- among them Johnson and Thompson, the detective said. The two teens joined in the smoking, sharing the marijuana cigarette that McGuire and the tenant were smoking, Gibbons testified.

Thompson also lived in the apartment complex, court records show.

Johnson and McGuire got into an argument when McGuire accused Johnson of being slow to pass the blunt around, the detective said.

Johnson pulled out a gun and put it in McGuire's face while the apartment resident attempted to calm things down, Gibbons said. She told police she then left the pair to go back to the room with the children when she heard shots fired.

She started putting the kids out through a window to get them to safety when the bullets started flying, the detective told the judge.

Two of the children told police that, just before the shooting, Thompson went into the room where they were, got a gun out of the closet and took the weapon back to where the adults were, Gibbons said. They then heard gunshots.

No one directly witnessed the shooting, the detective told the judge.

North Little Rock police officer Ryan Davidson, a member of the department's special enforcement team that tracks gang members and violent offenders, testified that authorities believe Thompson to be a gang member based on who he's been seen to associate with.

Thompson's connections to New Money New Nature, a subset of the Black Disciples gang, include photos and videos of Thompson with New Money members showing gang signs and posing with firearms, including on his Facebook page, Davidson said.

The Disciples have been involved in a spate of violent activity, including drive-by shootings and robberies, the officer testified.

Tom Devine, Thompson's attorney, objected to Davidson's testimony, accusing prosecutors of trying to smear his client in an incident that has no sign of gang involvement.

Devine told the judge that Thompson was incarcerated in the Texas juvenile justice system from April 2016 through last September for robbery, aggravated robbery and marijuana possession.

After his release, Thompson returned to Arkansas and enrolled in North Little Rock High School, the attorney said.

Deputy prosecutor Scott Duncan said the issue of whom Thompson associates with was appropriate for the judge to consider, since setting bail requires the judge to consider whether the defendant could be a threat to public safety.

Police have said that Thompson and another student, Kyrin Lebron, had been embroiled in some kind of feud. Lebron -- who has family ties to a New Money rival, the Gutta Boy gang/Murder Mob -- was arrested with a gun at the school in February.

His family said people had been shooting at Lebron, and he told school officials that he had the weapon to protect himself from possible ambush in the school's parking lot. Lebron was sentenced last month to three years in prison for having the gun on campus.

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Metro on 06/07/2018

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