Little Rock shooter receives 5-year sentence; elementary school hit by gunfire

A Little Rock Police Department vehicle is shown in this file photo.
A Little Rock Police Department vehicle is shown in this file photo.

The man who opened fire on the playground of a Little Rock elementary school last fall has been sentenced to five years in prison.

The mid-morning October gunfire at Chicot Elementary School sent the school into lockdown after eight bullets struck the school gym. No one was injured, and no students were in the gym. Police had the gunmen in custody within 15 minutes, court files show.

Officers saw four men run through the nearby trailer park and into a house at 7407 Royal Oaks Drive. The occupants -- Brandon Mackintrush, 17; Kortez Parker, 18; Clifton Shelton, 19; and Ladarius Williams, 21 -- surrendered without incident. A search of the home turned up guns and marijuana.

Shelton and Williams were arrested on charges related to the shooting. Police said their intended target, 17-year-old Josiah Stewart, said he saw Shelton shooting at him as he walked by the school. Stewart lived in the neighboring Whispering Hills mobile home park at 11500 Chicot Road.

Sentencing papers filed Friday by deputy prosecutor Reese Lancaster show Shelton pleaded guilty before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims to aggravated assault and possession of a firearm on school grounds.

Under the terms of Shelton's plea agreement, negotiated by defense attorney Will Ogles, Shelton received a five-year prison sentence that will be followed by a one-year suspended term.

Court files show that Williams told police he and the other three men came across Stewart walking in the area and that Shelton pulled out a gun. Williams said he took the pistol away from Shelton, but Shelton took the gun back and started shooting at Stewart.

Williams pleaded guilty to aggravated assault last week in exchange for five years on probation and a $1,000 fine. Under the plea agreement negotiated by Public Defender Fernando Padilla, prosecutors dropped a charge of possession of a handgun on school property.

Mackintrush was released without charges, while the discovery of the guns and marijuana led to drug and gun charges against Parker, a resident of the Royal Oaks home. He pleaded guilty in May in exchange for a six-year prison sentence. Parker was on probation for a June 2017 robbery conviction when he was arrested.

Stewart also was arrested after the school shooting. He was wanted at the time for his role in the August 2018 shooting of Marion Alfred Lovell, 64, a neighbor at the mobile home park.

Lovell was shot in the legs and back about six weeks before the Chicot Elementary shooting.

Stewart pleaded guilty to first-degree battery in January in exchange for a 10-year sentence.

Metro on 09/17/2019

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