Once described by authorities as "a danger to the community," a Little Rock teenager accepted a 35-year prison sentence Monday in the slaying of a woman in front of her 2-year-old daughter.
Kevin Williams Jr., 17, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder -- reduced from capital murder -- second-degree battery, theft and three counts of aggravated robbery. The prison term, negotiated by defense attorney Ron Davis, requires that Williams will have to serve at least 24½ years before he can qualify for parole.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen told Williams that he hoped the teen realizes the significance of what he's done.
"Mr. Williams, I hope you use the rest of your life to ponder what you've taken and to understand what you've taken can never be replaced," he said after imposing sentence.
Deputy prosecutor Amanda Fields called Williams "a danger to the community" at a hearing last year. The teen had been linked to three armed robberies, all targeting Hispanic victims.
Williams was 15 in January 2016 when he shot and killed 27-year-old Eunice Lopez Garcia in front of her Keats Drive home while the woman was carrying the toddler and her purse. Witnesses said Garcia was accosted by four teens just after walking out of the house.
One of the group grabbed the purse, which caused her to drop the toddler, as she was dragged along the lawn. The robber then fired a shot into her stomach and fled with the purse, police said.
Police were able to track the group to a Chaucer Lane home nearby where they detained four people, one of whom described seeing Williams shoot Garcia. Williams surrendered that same day after police announced they were looking for him.
Police said Williams confessed to the shooting. A co-defendant, Ramale Collier, is charged with theft in the case. Collier is due to stand trial in May.
The pair were subsequently charged with an August 2015 holdup in which two robbers ambushed a couple with their 2-year-old son in the driveway of their home on Meldia Drive, punching the toddler and clubbing the child's father with a gun.
Luis Flores and wife Martiza Estrada had just pulled into their driveway, and Flores was getting the boy out of the car when he was hit from behind by an assailant, who also struck the child.
Police did not have any leads in the robbery until Estrada called after seeing Williams on the news and recognizing him as one of the attackers. Investigators said Collier was the robber who struck the father and son. His trial in that case is also set for May.
Williams was also charged with the armed robbery of Milton Ramirez, a maintenance worker at the Whispering Hills mobile home park on Chicot Road, but prosecutors dropped the charges as part of Williams' plea agreement. Ramirez was accosted by three robbers two days before Garcia was killed.
Metro on 03/27/2018