John Lynch
Stories by John
Man admits inflicting burns, fractures on boy
posted: 05/18/2013 5:16 a.m. Discuss
With a shrug of his shoulders Friday, 35-year-old Ronnie Lee Canada admitted to burning, fracturing bones and inflicting other injuries on a 2-year-old boy in Little Rock.
LR man admits to robbing murder victim, gets 40 years
posted: 05/17/2013 4:57 a.m. Discuss
A Little Rock man linked to the December 2011 murder of a drug dealer behind the Central High School football field was sentenced to 40 years in prison Thursday after admitting to participating in the robbery that led to the victim’s slaying.
Murder suspect fit to stand trial
posted: 05/14/2013 3:54 a.m. Discuss
A Pulaski County Circuit judge on Monday set a December trial date for a homeless man accused of killing a pregnant Little Rock woman and her unborn child after state doctors deemed the defendant fit to proceed after he had spent about three weeks in the State Hospital.
Appeal abandoned, killer dog euthanized
posted: 05/12/2013 4:09 a.m. Comments 6
Nova the pit bull, deemed vicious by Little Rock city officials, has been put down after its owner decided against challenging the constitutionality of the city’s pit-bull ordinance to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
England man acquitted in shooting at nightclub
posted: 05/10/2013 5:01 a.m. Discuss
A 22-year-old England man charged in a Pulaski County nightclub shooting that wounded three people was acquitted Thursday at his second trial.
NLR man quickly convicted, gets 25 years for 2010 gunfire
posted: 05/09/2013 4:52 a.m. Discuss
A 29-year-old self-proclaimed youth minister responsible for a November 2010 Pulaski County shooting rampage authorities say was motivated by the man’s rage against relatives and former employers he believed had done him wrong was sentenced to 25 years in prison Wednesday.
Prosecutors call 4 shootings in ’10 man’s ‘rage’ act
posted: 05/08/2013 5:07 a.m. Discuss
A 30-year-old man was “acting out of rage” over how disappointing his life had become when he went on a shooting rampage in Pulaski County in November 2010, prosecutors told a jury on Tuesday.
Judge sets child-abuse trial’s rules
posted: 04/30/2013 3:24 a.m. Discuss
A jury at the coming child-abuse trial of a 35-year-old Little Rock man can hear the child’s mother testify that the defendant once talked about hiding the boy’s body if he died, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright ruled Monday.
Legality of search is upheld
posted: 04/30/2013 3:23 a.m. Discuss
A 48-year-old North Little Rock man, facing a mandatory life sentence if convicted of robbing a Pulaski County convenience store, failed to convince a Pulaski County circuit judge to throw out the evidence against him on Monday.
Give back $28,630 taken at traffic stop, judge says
posted: 04/30/2013 12:25 a.m. Comments 4
A Pulaski County circuit judge on Monday ordered authorities to return $28,630 seized during a homicide investigation to the 37-year-old North Little Rock man it was taken from.
6 on death row sue, say drugs a gamble
posted: 04/27/2013 5:08 a.m. Comments 12
Six death-row inmates sued the state Friday, claiming that Arkansas’ new lethal-injection procedure probably will not kill them.
Woman guilty in adoption scam
posted: 04/27/2013 5:02 a.m. Discuss
A Pulaski County jury on Friday rejected Donna Gail Hight’s claims that she had no role in any wrongdoing at Adoption Advantage, a ruling that opens her up to fines that could top $180,000 and damages of more than $400,000.
Adoption firm’s boss: No deceit
posted: 04/26/2013 4:40 a.m. Discuss
Former Little Rock adoption agency operator Donna Gail Hight told a Pulaski County jury on Thursday she never cheated any client and never wanted to.
Adoption agency called evil, then state rests case against 2
posted: 04/25/2013 4:59 a.m. Discuss
State attorneys concluded their deceptive-trade-practices case against an operator of a defunct Little Rock adoption agency with the testimony Wednesday of an ex-client who denounced Adoption Advantage as “evil,” saying it cheated her with the promise of a baby who was not the agency’s to give away.
No babies, only fees, testify LR adoption agency’s clients
posted: 04/24/2013 2:57 a.m. Comment 1
A succession of former Adoption Advantage clients testified Tuesday that the now-defunct Little Rock agency’s promises to make them parents cost them thousands of dollars and left them with heartache and frustration, but no children.
Greed drove adoption firm, state says
posted: 04/23/2013 3:47 a.m. Discuss
A Little Rock husband and wife turned their now-defunct Arkansas adoption agency into a “money-making machine” fueled by “filthy greed” rather than a desire to find good homes for children, a state attorney told a Pulaski County jury on Monday.
Killer, 20, receives 60 years in prison
posted: 04/19/2013 4:39 a.m. Discuss
The Jacksonville man who killed a convenience store clerk and mother of two in a September holdup was sentenced to 60 years in prison on Thursday in an arrangement with prosecutors that requires him to testify against his co-defendants.
Killer gets life term in LR slaying
posted: 04/19/2013 4:19 a.m. Discuss
The capital-murder trial that pitted brother against brother — both horrifically scarred in a childhood fire — ended with a life sentence for the younger man Thursday after his older brother invoked his right not to incriminate himself before the Pulaski County jury.
Scars led to wrong brother, court told
posted: 04/18/2013 4:47 a.m. Discuss
Little Rock police were so sure that whoever killed Kelvin Lott-Shelton was marked by disfiguring burns that, faced with two similarly scarred brothers as potential suspects, investigators rushed out and arrested the wrong man, a defense attorney told a Pulaski County jury on Wednesday.
Knifing of wife draws 65-year term
posted: 04/18/2013 12:54 a.m. Discuss
A 32-year-old Jacksonville man was sentenced to 65 years in prison Wednesday for stabbing his wife 30 times, after a Pulaski County jury rejected claims that he was acting in self-defense when he almost disemboweled the woman with a Bowie knife.
Killer of LR dad of two handed 65-year sentence
posted: 04/17/2013 3:43 a.m. Discuss
Almost three years to the day that a Little Rock father of two was found fatally shot, the man convicted of his April 2010 murder was sentenced to 65 years in prison.
Man gets life term for killing
posted: 04/13/2013 4:59 a.m. Discuss
A California man was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison Friday for the November 2011 slaying of a Little Rock college student.
Sexual-assault trial ends with deadlocked LR jury
posted: 04/13/2013 4:54 a.m. Discuss
The sexual-assault trial of a 49-year-old Little Rock man designated by state authorities as a sexually violent predator ended with a hung jury Friday when jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict on whether he had molested two Little Rock teenagers.
Accused a ‘mentor,’ witnesses say
posted: 04/12/2013 4:46 a.m. Discuss
Andrew Montgomery Holland was a “mentor” and “father figure” who kept young men out of trouble by putting them to work with odd jobs, giving them a place to play music and providing a couple of them the sanctuary of his home to escape a troubled home life, a Pulaski County jury heard in testimony Thursday.
Defense tells jurors wrong guy on trial
posted: 04/12/2013 4:45 a.m. Discuss
Defense attorney Lee Short summed up the prosecution’s capital-murder case against his client Thursday in one pungent no-holds-barred metaphor: “Crap.”
Jury says fatal crash a misdemeanor
posted: 04/12/2013 4:43 a.m. Discuss
A 26-year-old man who killed a motorcyclist in a January 2012 collision in North Little Rock was convicted Wednesday of a misdemeanor by a Pulaski County jury that rejected the more-serious charge of felony manslaughter.
Witness testifies why he now says he saw killing
posted: 04/11/2013 4:54 a.m. Comment 1
The man who told a Pulaski County jury he saw capital-murder defendant Donnie Maiden shoot and kill a Little Rock man in November 2011 was recalled to the stand on Wednesday to explain why he had changed his earlier story about what he had seen.
Music mentor’s interest turned sexual, teen says
posted: 04/11/2013 4:47 a.m. Discuss
A 17-year-old boy testified Wednesday that he had endured repeated molestation for months by a Little Rock man — also a convicted sex offender — who managed his burgeoning rap-music career because he feared he’d have to give up his music if he told anyone what was happening to him.
Killing described on witness stand
posted: 04/10/2013 3:57 a.m. Discuss
The co-defendant of a California man charged with capital murder told a Pulaski County jury Tuesday that he saw the defendant pump several bullets into the victim.
Sex offender’s trial on in boys’ assaults
posted: 04/10/2013 3:56 a.m. Discuss
Lawyers for a convicted sex offender — deemed a sexually violent predator by authorities — who is accused of molesting two teenage boys in Little Rock opened his sexual assault trial Tuesday by painting their client as a victim of the manipulation of two young men trying to cover up their own bad behavior.
Judge orders hip-hop teen tried as adult on robbery charges
posted: 04/09/2013 4:36 a.m. Comments 2
A Little Rock teenager and hip-hop musician accused of using Internet ads to lure robbery victims into ambushes was ordered Monday to stand trial as an adult on eight counts of aggravated robbery.
Man gets 15 years in break-in, attack
posted: 04/09/2013 4:31 a.m. Discuss
A Bauxite man was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday for what a prosecutor called “classic domestic violence ” against his ex-girlfriend of 23 years.
Won’t exclude testimony, judge in murder trial says
posted: 04/05/2013 4:21 a.m. Discuss
A Pulaski County jury will get to hear how a California man, accused of capital murder, came to be arrested in Arizona with the gun used in a November 2011 slaying near North Little Rock, a circuit judge ruled Thursday.
LR man gets 25 years after fatal ’11 shooting
posted: 04/03/2013 3:39 a.m. Discuss
After two men pleaded guilty to manslaughter for an August 2011 shooting at a Little Rock convenience store, prosecutors dropped a first-degree murder charge against the third defendant Tuesday.
Sand mine violations lead to fine of $11,000
posted: 04/02/2013 4:53 a.m. Discuss
An unlicensed Perry County open-pit sand mine on the Arkansas River and one of its owners was fined $11,000, the minimum sanction, Monday for violating state clean water and mining regulations.
Attorney’s suspended license prompts mistrial in murder case
posted: 03/29/2013 5:20 a.m. Discuss
The murder trial of a Hensley man accused of fatally stabbing a Bauxite musician outside a nightclub ended in mistrial Thursday when the judge learned a defense attorney was working under a suspended law license. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright was notified by authorities who were responding to a routine inquiry by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette about the standing of Benton attorney David M. Littlejohn, co-counsel representing Brian Elam Sims of Hensley, 29. Littlejohn’s license had been suspended in December 2011 for failing to complete continuing-education requirements. Littlejohn had met those requirements but had not paid a $250 reinstatement fee. Littlejohn, a lawyer for about 10 years, said it was an oversight, and court records show he had paid the fee and had his license reinstated by mid-afternoon.
Legislator contesting $150 fine, censure
posted: 03/28/2013 3:17 a.m. Discuss
State Rep. John Hutchison is challenging ethics sanctions he received for using campaign funds to pay some of his mother’s electric bills while he was renting campaign office space in her home.
Stabbing was a blur of blade, jury told
posted: 03/28/2013 3:14 a.m. Discuss
With his final words, a Bauxite musician, fatally wounded in the parking lot of a nightclub, called out for his son and begged for medical attention, a Pulaski County jury heard Wednesday in the first-degree murder trial of the man accused of stabbing him.
Judge doesn’t buy insanity in killing
posted: 03/27/2013 5:20 a.m. Comment 1
A 35-year-old man who said a cabal of federal agents and police were involved in an April 2010 slaying in southwest Little Rock was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder and illegal gun possession in the killing.
No prison for woman after arson, assault
posted: 03/27/2013 5:16 a.m. Discuss
A Pulaski County Circuit judge on Tuesday imposed a suspended sentence on a Woodson woman, telling the 56-year-old that his decision not to send her to prison will likely result in a death sentence if she doesn’t get her alcoholism under control.
Bond is revoked in fatal accident
posted: 03/26/2013 4:59 a.m. Discuss
A North Little Rock man whose lawyers claim he has been too ill, physically and mentally, to stand trial over accusations he killed a girl in a 2010 car crash was ordered jailed Monday after the presiding judge learned he had been convicted of a felony within the past five months.
Teen gets 8 years for gun-play death
posted: 03/26/2013 4:49 a.m. Discuss
A North Little Rock teenager was sentenced to eight years in prison Monday for killing a woman while playing with a gun.
Judge rejects convicts’ inquiry
posted: 03/26/2013 12:04 a.m. Comments 2
A Pulaski County Circuit judge on Monday rejected an effort by six Arkansas death row inmates to learn where the state is getting the drugs that will be used to execute them, siding with a state lawyer who said they will eventually have access to that information.
LR law ruled legal; pit-bull death verdict upheld
posted: 03/23/2013 4:07 a.m. Comment 1
Only the Arkansas Supreme Court can save Nova the pit bull now.
New offenses net drug dealer 10 years
posted: 03/23/2013 3:50 a.m. Discuss
A 38-year-old Little Rock crack-cocaine dealer whose federal conviction in 2006 was touted as a significant blow to drug-trafficking in the city has been sentenced to 10 years in state prison for drug-dealing committed since his release from federal prison.
Ex-coroner’s bias lawsuit is refiled in state court
posted: 03/22/2013 12:52 a.m. Discuss
Three weeks after a federal judge rebuffed his discrimination claim against Pulaski County, former county coroner Garland Camper has filed suit again, this time in state court, to get his job back.
Defendant mentally ill but triable, doctors say
posted: 03/16/2013 4:55 a.m. Discuss
A mentally ill Jacksonville man accused of killing a firefighter and trying to kill another firefighter and a police officer last year was not insane at the time, according to a mental-health assessment presented in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Friday.
Suspect in 1997 killing acquitted
posted: 03/16/2013 4:54 a.m. Discuss
Cedrick Simpson was acquitted of capital murder Friday by a Pulaski County jury that deliberated about 2½ hours to reject prosecutors’ claims that he had admitted to participating in the fatal holdup of a grocery store manager in 1997.
Jury hears of prison fear
posted: 03/15/2013 3:23 a.m. Discuss
Cedrick Simpson told a Pulaski County jury on Thursday that he would have said just about anything 15 years ago to persuade police to help him avoid prison.
LR man who left his drug trial in 2012 receives 41-year term
posted: 03/15/2013 3:19 a.m. Discuss
A Little Rock man who left his trial before jurors had reached a verdict was sentenced to 41 years in prison by a Pulaski County circuit judge who said he wished he could add more time.
