Suspect already jailed on murder charge accused in 2018 killing outside Little Rock auto detail shop

Darrius Holmes
Darrius Holmes

A man who was jailed earlier this year in a 2018 killing in Little Rock is now facing charges tied to a second homicide in the city, authorities said.

The Little Rock Police Department said officers on Monday served warrants charging 25-year-old Darrius Holmes with capital murder in the killing of 39-year-old Joshua Backus.

Holmes has been in the Pulaski County jail since April 4. He was arrested then on first-degree murder charges in the death of 32-year-old Levon Sales Jr., who was fatally shot on Oct. 12, 2018, in the driveway of Oakridge Apartments.

On Monday, police said Holmes is also a suspect in the fatal shooting on Backus on April 5, 2018.

Officers were called that night to the parking lot of an auto detail shop in the 5300 block of Mabelvale Pike, according to a news release issued at the time.

Backus was lying in the lot with multiple gunshot wounds and was unresponsive, police said. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he later died from his injuries.

Holmes was already in the Pulaski County jail on separate charges when he was served warrants on Monday charging him with capital murder and possession of firearms by a certain person, police said in a statement.

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