A 21-year-old Little Rock man who twice ran over a former friend was cleared of murder charges by a Pulaski County jury, but was sentenced Friday to six years in prison for leaving the scene of an accident.
The six-year term for Nathan Gregory Schneider was the maximum available left to the eight women and four men after the panel rejected accusations that Schneider had deliberately struck 19-year-old Jason Lloyd Duft of Roland with his sport utility vehicle in December 2017.
The first-degree murder count carried a potential life sentence with a 10-year minimum. Schneider will have to serve at least a year before he can qualify for parole.
The deadly encounter was captured on two video surveillance cameras, giving jurors the rare opportunity to see a lot of what happened for themselves, albeit from a distance, with the clearest view in somewhat grainy black and white.
Duft was hit twice by Schneider's SUV, first as the vehicle backed out of a parking spot and then when it moved forward and left. He was knocked unconscious with his pelvis and skull fractured. He never awakened and died in a hospital about a week later.
Defense attorney Jim Hensley told jurors that what they had seen was a tragic accident. A panicked and injured Schneider -- who had just been pummeled by Duft -- was trying to drive away when he inadvertently ran over the man without realizing it, the attorney said in his closing remarks.
"You saw this happen in four or five seconds," Hensley said. "He was trying to get out of there. How can this be murder? It happened so fast. Nathan didn't leave the scene of an accident deliberately, and he definitely didn't murder his friend."
With little in dispute over how Duft was killed, deputy prosecutor Alan Jones told jurors that they needed to decide what Schneider was thinking when he ran over Duft.
"The only question at the end of this trial is Nathan's mental state," he said.
Prosecutors contended that Schneider acted deliberately because the video shows Schneider's wheels turning toward where Duft was lying on the ground.
Dr. Jennifer Forsythe, the state medical examiner who performed the autopsy, testified that she had classified Duft's manner of death as undetermined instead of homicide or accident because authorities did not know the driver's mindset. The designation is for medical classification purposes and not a legal determination.
Jurors, who were told they could consider that Schneider was acting in self-defense, also had the option of convicting him of manslaughter by finding that he had acted recklessly.
At one point during deliberations, jurors indicated to Judge Herb Wright that there was an interest in considering something less than manslaughter, the lowest charge available to them.
Schneider and Duft had once been close friends but had been feuding for some time. The nature of the dispute was not made clear in court, but jurors were told that Duft had beaten Schneider in a fight a week earlier at Two Rivers Park, a popular hangout for their social circle.
Their final confrontation occurred about 9:30 p.m. on the day after Christmas 2017 when their paths crossed again at the Chenal Park West shopping center at 13000 Chenal Parkway where Rock City Vapes was another hangout spot for the men and their friends.
All that went on between the two wasn't made clear, beyond that the men spoke, that some kind of confrontation occurred, and that a woman with Schneider punched Duft in the face while the three were standing together.
Schneider and the woman then got back into the SUV, and Duft stepped up to the car to unload a barrage of punches on Schneider through the open driver's side window. The SUV backed out, pulling Duft under the tires, then sped forward, running over him as he lay on the ground.
Police searching for Schneider found his 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe at the family home on Rivercrest Road two days later, but he did not surrender for another five days, the day before Duft died.
Schneider did not testify, but the woman with him that night, 18-year-old Jessica Troutman of Hot Springs, told jurors that she and Schneider had been taken by surprise by the aggressive Duft. Troutman, the only defense witness, said she had to punch Duft to get him to back away.
Duft's attack through the car window left a panicky Schneider so bloody and hurt that she worried that he could not drive, Troutman testified, telling jurors she had no idea they had run over anyone. Once Schneider cleaned himself up they continued with their original plan of camping out overnight, she said.
The pair did not learn what had happened until the next day, Troutman said.
Deputy prosecutor Robbie Jones called Troutman a liar in his closing statement, telling jurors that police found no blood evidence to support her version of events. He questioned why the pair didn't call police to report Duft's attack and how she could say she didn't realize Duft had been hit when the video shows the SUV taillights bouncing as the vehicle runs over the downed man.
The three prosecution witnesses, each of whom described the incident as intentional, were more credible and, unlike Troutman, had no reason to lie, Jones told jurors.
Two of them were friends with Duft -- Bradley Johnson and Abbie Taylor, both 21 and from Little Rock -- but the third, Tamra Doling, the 32-year-old manager of the nearby Five Guys restaurant, did not know either of the men, the prosecutor said.
Johnson and Taylor did give differing accounts of what went on between Duft and Schneider before things got so heated that night. Johnson told jurors that Duft approached Schneider asking for an apology for whatever had gone on between them previously, while Taylor testified that Duft had been trying to apologize to Schneider.
Metro on 01/19/2019