A 25-year-old man who shot up a southwest Little Rock home then led police on a high-speed chase two days later has accepted a 15-year prison sentence.
Sentencing papers filed Friday by deputy prosecutor Amanda Fields show Wesley O'Neal Kirkpatrick has pleaded guilty to fleeing and 11 counts of committing a terroristic act in exchange for the 15-year sentence from Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza. He faced up to 336 years in prison on the charges.
Under the conditions of Kirkpatrick's plea agreement, negotiated by defense attorney John Wesley Hall, Kirkpatrick will serve a five-year suspended sentence once he's released from prison.
Police said the home at 1409 Wolfe St. was struck 30 times by gunfire fired from a car just before 6 p.m. June 30, 2018. There were five people in the home -- Marrissa Robinson, Lovey Gutierrez, Knell Jones, Kieanna Dixon and Runder Jackson -- but no one was injured. One bullet struck the neighboring home at 1417 Wolfe St. but neither occupant, James Morgan nor Elizabeth Wooley, was hurt.
Passing motorists reported seeing someone in a bright blue passenger car, possibly a Subaru, with out-of-state license plates firing at the home.
Two days later, patrol officers caught sight of a Subaru with Arizona tags on Shackleford Road but the driver wouldn't stop when police tried to pull the car over, instead fleeing onto Interstate 630. State Police and sheriff's deputies joined the pursuit but the fleeing vehicle got away.
State Police later found the car abandoned at the Exxon convenience store at 300 Lake Lane off Interstate 440, but Kirkpatrick and another man, Siddick Bubakar Haidara, 20, were arrested nearby.
Court filings show that, questioned by detectives, Kirkpatrick admitted to being the driver of the car, saying that Haidara had been in the car with him but it was two other passengers, Ladarius Williams, 21, and Joshua David Jordan, 20, who fired the shots, first at the Wolfe Street house and then later that night at Sanford Place apartments, 2018 Sanford Drive.
Jordan told police he didn't know anything about the shootings, and Haidara refused to answer any questions. Kirkpatrick was the only one charged.
However, Jordan has since been sentenced to five years in prison for a series of arrests, including a Christmas Eve 2017 incident in which he threatened a woman, 22-year-old Learicc Brown, with a gun at 2422 Marshall St. in Little Rock.
In September, Williams was sentenced to five years on probation for aggravated assault, a charge stemming from his role in shooting at another man, Josiah Stewart, near Chicot Elementary in October 2018. His co-defendant, Clifton Shelton, 19, received a five-year prison sentence.
Haidara is in the Pulaski County jail, accused in two other drive-by shootings that occurred less than a day apart.
Police say on the night of Aug. 24, Haidara chased down a car driven by Jayden Ingram, 22, while shooting at Ingram and his passenger, 19-year-old Melania Blasio, causing the couple to crash on Chenal Parkway.
The next day, about 8:30 p.m., Haidara drove up to 2609 Boulevard Ave., the home of 21-year-old Joshua Woodley, and opened fire on Woodley and a friend, Kobie Anderson, 19, who were standing outside the residence, which was struck by gunfire.
Bullets from that incident also struck a neighboring residence at 2701 Boulevard, the home of 73-year-old Betty McCoy and her 15-year-old grandson. No one was injured.
Haidara was arrested the following day after patrol officers saw Haidara driving his bullet-damaged white Dodge Challenger on Chenal. They pulled him over and found a gun on his front passenger seat along with two spent rifle casings elsewhere in the car, according to police reports.
He faces six counts of unlawful discharge of a firearm and two counts of aggravated assault, charges that together carry a potential life sentence.
In April 2017, Haidara, then 18, and another teen, Ronterio Claybrooks, were wounded in a shootout in the Midtown Park apartments, 6115 W. Markham St., that killed 17-year-old Nigel Jackson. Haidara was a resident at the apartments and told police he'd been ambushed in the stairwell by robbers. Haidara said Jackson and Claybrooks drew on him first so he pulled his own weapon.
Claybrooks was charged with manslaughter, first-degree battery and aggravated robbery but the charges were dropped. Claybrooks told investigators that he and Jackson had gone to meet Haidara to trade guns but that Jackson had surprised him by trying to rob Haidara.
Metro on 11/20/2019