Larry James Jackson Jr., the second of two youths charged in the November 2016 slaying of a 2-year-old girl, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday, five months after his co-defendant, the shooter, accepted a 30-year term for first-degree murder
Jackson, 18, pleaded guilty to unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims. Under the plea agreement, negotiated by Jackson’s attorney, Willard Proctor, prosecutors dropped capital murder and five other unlawful discharge counts, charges that could have sent Jackson to prison for life.
Deshaun Malik Rushing, 22, admitted to firing the shot that killed 2-year-old Ramiya Reed when he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in April and accepted a 30-year prison sentence.
Ramiya, sitting in her mother’s lap, was one of five children riding in a car on South Harrison Street being driven by an adult cousin when someone in another car on the street opened fire.
Jackson admitted on Wednesday to driving that other car while Rushing fired the gun. Chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson said authorities believe the pair were actually after the son of the car’s driver and targeted the vehicle because they had seen him driving it.
The girl’s slaying came two days before Thanksgiving and revived public attention toward Little Rock’s deadly gang culture. Police said the shooting was an outgrowth of a violent feud between the Real Hustlers Incorporated, a Bloods-affiliate formerly known as the Monroe Street Hustlers, and the Wolfe Street Crips.
Those gangs have roots more than 25 years deep in Little Rock’s southwest neighborhoods. Police said Rushing and Jackson Jr. are Monroe Street members. Jackson was 16 at the time of the slaying.