Police arrested a Little Rock man on murder charges Tuesday after a woman who was expecting to pick up her brother for a court appearance instead found him dead on the floor of his Hillcrest home, a police spokesman said.
Officers arrested Jordan Garvey, 25, on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of 52-year-old Eric Leisman, police spokesman Eric Barnes said. Leisman was found dead in his home Tuesday morning, but Barnes said investigators believe the slaying occurred Monday afternoon.
Sometime before 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Martha Leisman drove to her brother's home on Woodlawn Drive to take him to a court hearing for his most recent arrest, according to a statement from the Police Department and court records.
Eric Leisman had been arrested three days earlier when he was found intoxicated in a Kroger parking lot and threatened to assault officers who took him to a hospital, according to an arrest report.
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He was supposed to appear in court at 8:30 a.m., but he couldn't drive himself because his driver's license had been revoked after multiple DWI arrests, court records show. He'd been arrested for driving on a suspended license once before.
The drive from Martha Leisman's home in Maumelle takes a little over 20 minutes, and she'd called her brother multiple times that morning but received no answer, she told police later.
At 8:30 a.m., when Eric Leisman was supposed to be in court, Martha Leisman called 911. Her brother was dead, she told dispatchers, and there was blood on his face.
Investigators arrived Tuesday morning at the Woodlawn Drive home, neighbors said. A crime scene unit was still parked in front of the one-story white house as of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Barnes said the crime scene unit arrived at the scene only after detectives had determined that the death was a homicide, although the death was publicly classified as "suspicious" until Wednesday morning.
Eric Leisman bought the 1949 wooden house in 2007, according to property records, and had filled the yard with flowers.
A photo from 2007 shows a sparse lawn, a few camellia bushes and a tall tree as the yard's only vegetation. On Tuesday, however, there were a dozen little plants near the doorway and along the house's sides.
A pot of succulents sat on a bench in front of a Razorbacks sign on the front door. A shovel, rake and spade were near the front porch. A trash can nearby held sticks that had fallen from the tall oak tree.
The camellias were still there Tuesday with buds just starting to open. A few spots of pink were visible behind the police tape.
But two tall, potted trees had fallen over and not been righted. One of the decorative bottles sitting on the concrete front porch steps had tipped over and rolled across the stair.
In a yard where sticks had been meticulously picked up and put in a garbage bin, branches littered the ground Tuesday evening.
Police listed Eric Leisman's estimated time of death as Monday afternoon, and the National Weather Service said Little Rock had winds of up to 22 mph Monday evening.
Barnes said investigators developed Garvey as a suspect relatively quickly, and a police report said officers arrested him by 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, about four hours after Martha Leisman found her brother dead. Barnes said investigators believe Garvey and Eric Leisman were friends.
A police report indicates that Leisman's wounds were caused by "personal weapons," which could be injuries from hands, feet or fists, but Barnes said he could not speak about the specific nature of the injuries.
In his mug shot, Garvey has a black eye.
Officers found some of Eric Leisman's property in Garvey's possession and he has been charged with theft of property, according to an arrest disposition report. Garvey was in the Pulaski County jail in lieu of a $500,000 bond as of Wednesday evening, according to the jail's roster.
Just before 5 p.m. Tuesday, more than four hours after Garvey was arrested, a woman who lived next to Eric Leisman wondered what happened to her neighbor. The area around her home was quiet, she said, adding that she had moved in just three months ago.
It must have been an accident, she said more than 12 hours before police announced that the death was a homicide.
She just couldn't believe a slaying could have happened across the street, she said.
Metro on 01/24/2019