HOT SPRINGS -- A mistrial related to alleged juror misconduct was declared Wednesday afternoon near the end of closing statements in the first-degree murder trial of a Hot Springs-area man charged in a 2017 shooting near a former nightclub.
The Garland County Circuit Court jury of seven women and five men had listened to three days of testimony in the trial of McKinley Junior Williams, 31, who was facing up to life in prison if convicted in the July 16, 2017, death of Timothy Edmund Martin, 37. Martin was shot several times while sitting in his car near the former Boot Scooters at 421 Broadway in Hot Springs.
Both sides had rested shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday and were wrapping up closing statements when the court learned that one of the jurors was acquainted with the victim. That was despite being questioned along with the rest of the jury about whether any of them knew any of the principals in the case, chief deputy prosecutor Kara Petro told The Sentinel-Record.
Petro said the juror was reportedly a former employer of the victim and didn't disclose that information to the court. The case will have to be reset for a new trial, likely in October.
Williams testified Wednesday morning, and jurors learned that he had two convictions in Chicago for robbery in 2006 and 2007 and a conviction in Garland County in 2009 for simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms for which he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He served 7½ years before he was paroled in September 2016.
Under questioning by his attorney, Chief Public Defender Tim Beckham, Williams presented a timeline of his activities on the night of July 15 and morning of July 16 before and after the shooting. That timeline differed significantly from the one laid out Tuesday by Hot Springs police detective Scott Lampinen, the lead investigator on the case.
Kirkland Eugene Litzsey, 31, of Little Rock had previously admitted to driving Williams to and from Boot Scooters before and after the shooting and to another club, Rumors, afterward. He testified that he didn't know Williams planned to shoot Martin. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison on March 4 after pleading guilty to hindering apprehension or prosecution in the case and testified Tuesday as part of his plea agreement.
Lampinen testified that by using cellphone records from Williams' and Litzsey's phones and security video obtained from businesses along the route, investigators were able to prove Williams had been in the area of Boot Scooters at the time of the shooting, which occurred about 1:14 a.m.
Williams testified that his 29th birthday was July 15, and he was at a party that some friends had thrown for him at an apartment on Higdon Ferry Road from around 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. on July 15. After a quick trip to the liquor store before it closed, he went riding around with a friend, Anthony Loudermill, who had been at the party.
He noted that they drove past Boot Scooters and through downtown "just trying to see who was out and who was kicking it."
Williams said they went to Loudermill's sister's apartment on Whittington Avenue at one point so Loudermill could change clothing, while he waited in the car for him. When Loudermill returned to the car, Williams said he told him he had heard there was a shooting at Boot Scooters.
He said they went back to the apartment on Higdon Ferry about 1:30 a.m. to get Williams' phone charger after his phone died. He said he had spoken to his friend, Litzsey, several times on the phone earlier and eventually met up with him on Charteroak Street because Williams wanted to go to Rumors and Loudermill was "fighting with his girlfriend" and needed to go see her.
He said he got out of Loudermill's car and into Litzsey's car, and they went to Rumors, and that was the first time he was actually with Litzsey that night. He said he asked Litzsey if he knew about the shooting and Litzsey "told me somebody got killed but didn't go into detail."
Williams said they went to Rumors for an hour or so, noting that he had wanted to go there because a rapper he liked was performing. He said he found out the rapper was having his after-party at Boot Scooters and wanted to go there. Litzsey didn't want to go at first, but he talked him into it, Williams said, and they stayed at Boot Scooters until it closed about 5 a.m.
Williams said he saw Martin's car parked at Boot Scooters when they arrived, and "there was a crime scene in front of the club," but he never saw Martin that night and denied shooting him.
Asked by Petro how he knew what Martin's car looked like, he said he had seen him outside a restaurant a few months earlier in the car and "would sometimes see him in traffic." He said he first met Martin when they were in jail together in 2009.
Petro repeatedly questioned apparent inconsistencies in Williams' story, including how he was able to talk to Litzsey on the phone during the period from 12:52 to 2:08 a.m. when his phone was off, according to cellphone records. Williams said he used Loudermill's phone, which Petro noted he had never mentioned earlier.
Petro also noted that security video at Rumors showed Williams and Litzsey arriving there at 1:40 a.m., which was inconsistent with Williams' timeline and would not have allowed enough time for all the activities he described leading up to it.
He said he was not sure about the exact times involved and told Petro, "You're trying to confuse me or make me seem conflicted." He also noted that "those phone pings" reportedly placing him at various locations "are not accurate."
An earlier defense witness, La'britanie Brewer, had testified Wednesday that she was in the parking lot of Boot Scooters the night of the shooting and saw Deandre Collins, who was sitting in the car with Martin when he was shot, jump out and run up to the bouncers yelling for help.
She said she knew Martin because she had bought marijuana from him in the past. She said she approached Martin's car and asked if he was OK, and when he didn't answer she called 911 thinking he was dead. She said she saw Collins go back to the car moments later and take a black, rectangular bag, "like a barber bag."
Before Brewer testified and while the jury was out of the room, prosecutors objected to her testimony, arguing that it was not relevant whether Martin was a drug dealer or if the bag Collins grabbed had drugs in it.
Judge Marcia Hearnsberger questioned Beckham about it, noting that Martin "was executed. There was no evidence it was a drug deal" and that there had been no earlier testimony laying the groundwork for that theory.
Metro on 07/18/2019