A 34-year-old Little Rock man Wednesday received a 25-year prison sentence for killing an Italian tourist in a robbery attempt almost two years ago.
Andre Lamonte Jackson pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, reduced from capital murder, before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright, deputy prosecutor Robbie Jones said.
Court records show that Jackson -- with convictions for residential burglary, and firearm and drug possession -- had been on either probation or parole since October 2008. He was arrested in August 2017 in the slaying of Carlo Marigliano, 31, of Naples, Italy, the previous month.
Jackson also had methamphetamine and theft charges pending in Pulaski and Garland counties.
The firearm conviction stemmed from Jackson's December 2011 arrest after 4-year-old Elijah Jackson shot himself with Jackson's gun in September 2011 at the home of Linda Daniels in the Whispering Hills mobile home park on Chicot Road in Little Rock.
Jackson's arrest for murder came a week after Marigliano was found shot to death in his crashed rented Jeep Grand Cherokee at The Berkley Apartments on Shackleford Road. Jackson's palm print was found on the outside of the driver's door.
A search of Marigliano's cellphone turned up an Instagram photo of a woman who had been exchanging Facebook messages with Marigliano, whom police identified as Savannah Johnson. The phone also showed four calls between Johnson's friend, Fanicqua Blalock, and the dead man, according to reports. The last call was 6 minutes before the fatally wounded Marigliano crashed his Jeep, investigators said.
Johnson, 18, told police that she and Blalock were with a woman named Charina Fort, 32, and Jackson, who is Fort's cousin, at the Motel 6 on West Markham Street when Marigliano approached her about getting marijuana and having sex.
She said their first attempt to buy drugs near the motel was unsuccessful because the dealers were too suspicious to sell to them.
Searching for marijuana, Blalock, Johnson, Fort and Jackson led Marigliano to the Shackleford Road apartments, Johnson told police. The two men chatted and smoked a cigarette together while Blalock went looking for the marijuana, she said.
Jackson pulled a gun on Marigliano and demanded money, shooting the Italian when Marigliano put the Jeep in gear and tried to drive away, Johnson told investigators, saying she was grazed on her left shoulder by a bullet.
Blalock told police that she got out of the car at the apartments to go visit her aunt while Johnson got into the Jeep with Marigliano for some kind of sexual encounter.
Blalock has been charged with capital murder, accused of setting up Marigliano to be robbed, reports said. Her case is pending. She was arrested after another witness told police that he overheard Blalock on the phone telling someone that Jackson was just supposed to have robbed Marigliano not kill him, reports said.
Metro on 03/28/2019