Suspect accused of killing man, throwing abducted woman into Arkansas River is convicted bank robber

Little Rock man is 1 of 2 accused of Christmas Eve shootings in Lonoke County

Deymon Javon Webb, 28, left; and Richard Gilliam, 33.
Deymon Javon Webb, 28, left; and Richard Gilliam, 33.

A 33-year-old Little Rock man accused in a Christmas Eve double-shooting in Lonoke County that killed one man is a convicted bank robber whose testimony about a December 2004 murder in Little Rock helped send a man to prison for 75 years.

Richard Ledale Gilliam and a co-defendant are each charged with capital murder, kidnapping, aggravated residential burglary and attempted capital murder over accusations they were behind the home invasion at the Scott home of Arlin Wayne Nugent that killed Nugent and seriously wounded his roommate, Jeffrey Dunlap.

Jamie Shipp, alternately described as Dunlap’s wife and girlfriend, was also abducted by the killers and thrown in the Arkansas River, authorities said.

Both men are being held in the Lonoke County jail, each in lieu of a $1 million bond. They are scheduled to be arraigned in Lonoke County Circuit Court on Feb. 20.

Authorities have also charged Gilliam with felony criminal mischief, accusing him of shattering a TV screen and damaging a jail cell telephone on Dec 29. He told deputies he tore up the property because he was having trouble getting in contact with his family. The damage was estimated at at least $1,400.

Court records show that Gilliam served almost five years in a federal penitentiary for the March 2005 gunpoint holdup of the Bank of Little Rock branch on Rodney Par-ham Road where he and an accomplice stole $6,023. He pleaded guilty to a federal bank robbery charge three months later.

Two months after his guilty plea, while awaiting his federal sentencing, Gilliam testified for Pulaski County prosecutors as an eyewitness to the December 2004 slaying of Juan Jordan of North Little Rock.

The father of five was shot dead in the parking lot of The Palace nightclub in Little Rock, with Gilliam testifying at trial about seeing defendant Carl Terry Pippen shoot Jordan from behind.

Prosecutors said Pippen shot Jordan in the back of the head out of anger that Jordan had been talking to a woman that Pippen had brought to the club.

Pippen, now 33, denied being the killer, testifying he was being framed. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 75 years in prison in August 2005

Pippen argued that another man, Frank Marquis Turner, was the real killer. Turner, now 41, was Gilliam’s accomplice in the bank robbery, which netted him an eight-year federal sentence in 2006.

Gilliam was returned to federal prison for three years in May 2011 after his guilty plea to a gun charge stemming from an off-duty federal probation officer seeing Gilliam in January 2010 with an SKS rifle in the parking lot of an unnamed North Little Rock shopping center. Gilliam was putting the gun in his car, court records show.

State police arrested Gilliam four days later after finding the weapon in the passenger seat of his car during a traffic stop for speeding. Gilliam was also drinking alcohol and had an illegal switchblade knife in his pocket. He was released from prison in March 2014.

Court records show he was next arrested in March 2017 on East 19th Street by North Little Rock police who had stopped him for making an improper turn in his blue 2011 Mazda Cx7.

Officers reported they could smell marijuana in the sport utility vehicle and a search turned up about a gram of the contraband along with a loaded .22-caliber pistol. Police pepper-sprayed him in the back of the patrol car after his arrest when he refused to quit kicking the front seat, according to an arrest report. His passenger, Chiquita Shante Clayborn, 23, was released without charges.

Gilliam was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm but Pulaski County prosecutors dropped the charges two weeks ago after Circuit Judge Leon Johnson threw out all of the evidence.

William Shelton, Gilliam’s attorney, had argued that police had no legitimate reason to pull Gilliam over and, judging from the patrol car dashboard camera, were not in a position to see Gilliam commit the traffic infraction he was accused of.

Gilliam’s co-defendant in the Lonoke County case, identified in some records as his brother-in-law, 31-year-old Deymon Javon Webb of North Little Rock, has been on probation since May after his guilty plea to unlawful sale of a recording.

The charge stems from the November 2016 arrest of Webb and another man, Edwin Keith Smith, 26, of Cleveland at the White Hall Flea Market at 8110 Sheridan Road in Jefferson County.

The men were selling bootleg movies on DVD for at least $1 each, according to an arrest affidavit. Deputies seized 2,025 DVDs.

Webb told investigators the men had been selling the DVDs at the market for a couple of weeks, saying they had downloaded the movies from the Internet then burned them onto blank DVDs to be sold. He said he knew selling bootleg movies was illegal but did not know it was a felony.

Two months after Webb pleaded guilty to the Class D felony charge, probation officers reported finding a loaded Anderson MFG pistol under his mattress. There were also boxes of bootleg DVDs and CDs in the residence.

Webb admitted ownership of the gun, and police found boxes of ammunition and loose bullets in the Conway apartment where Smith and Webb were living. Authorities also reported seizing 2,406 movie discs that included copies of Justice League, Kong, Logan, Monster Trucks and Moana.

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Webb was subsequently charged in Faulkner County with being a felon in possession of a firearm and another count of unlawful copying of a recording. His trial on those charges is pending.

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