LITTLE ROCK — Two days after a pregnant Little Rock woman was found dead in her grandmother’s former home, police arrested and charged a homeless man in her slaying.
After police tracked down Mark Bonner, 25, behind a Taco Bell on Geyer Springs Road, detectives charged him early Thursday in the death of Alexis Esaw Khabeer and that of her unborn child.
Bonner initally refused to cooperate with detectives, though he eventually admitted to killing Khabeer, arrest reports said.
Khabeer, 25, had been staying illegally at the 5903 Hutsell Road home she once shared with her grandmother, Velma Esaw. Her body was found by a friend Tuesday morning after she didn’t respond to his text messages.
The body was taken to the state Crime Laboratory, where medical examiners ruled her death a homicide.
Little Rock Police Department spokesman Sgt. Cassandra Davis said Khabeer suffered “trauma” to the head, but she said she couldn’t comment on how that “trauma” was inflicted.
Khabeer and Bonner were “friends,” according to Davis, though she didn’t know the extent of their friendship or how long it had lasted.
Davis also declined to comment on a motive, saying she didn’t “want to interfere with [the detectives’] investigation.”
Davis said she would not comment on whether there are other suspects in the case.
Khabeer, who already had a 3-year-old child, separated from her husband more than two months ago, according to family members. After that, she lived on the street until she let herself into the vacant home she had known since she was 7 years old, according to Esaw.
Neighbors said they saw Khabeer, and on occasion her child, at the property, which was sold in March.
Khabeer’s husband, Ali Khabeer, has custody of the child, said Ali Khabeer’s mother, Loretta Williams.
Williams and Esaw said they had heard from neighbors that a man named “Mark” had been spotted entering and leaving the Hutsell Road home.
Bonner pleaded innocent to two counts of capital murder Thursday in Little Rock District Court.
Judge Alice Lightle set his bail at $1 million, and as of Thursday night, Bonner remained at the Pulaski County jail.
The slayings of Khabeer and her unborn child raise the number of Little Rock homicides to 27 this year.
There were 37 homicides last year and 28 such investigations in 2010.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 07/27/2012