Identified as a killer by the survivor of a double shooting that left a woman dead, a Little Rock capital murder suspect saw his bail set at $2.5 million Monday for the second slaying he was charged with in the space of about nine months.
Authorities are seeking a life sentence for 26-year-old Anthony Lanelle Thomas Jr. in the April 2020 slaying of 33-year-old Kiero Lasha Turner of Little Rock, and chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson asked Pulaski County Circuit Judge Cathi Compton to hold Thomas without bail until his trial next year.
Thomas was named as the woman's killer by her husband, 36-year-old Ricky Lamar Turner, who survived a gunshot through the neck and jaw in the attack, the prosecutor said. Turner has no reason to lie in identifying Thomas, a longtime acquaintance, as the gunman who shot both of them about a week after Easter 2020, the prosecutor said. At the time, Thomas had been free on $100,000 bond on a first-degree murder charge stemming from a July 2019 Little Rock homicide.
Defense attorney Willard Proctor argued for "reasonable" bail at Monday's bond hearing because he said the only thing connecting Thomas to Kiero Turner's killing is the word of her husband, whom Proctor described as a convicted drug dealer of questionable credibility.
There is no physical evidence nor other witnesses to the killing, and Thomas has an alibi, with relatives placing him at a family gathering when the Turners were shot, the lawyer said.
Proctor further noted an inconsistency in the accounts that Ricky Turner and Thomas gave police, with Turner saying he and his wife had been giving Thomas a ride to the grocery store. Thomas told police he had met up with Ricky Turner that day to buy marijuana from him.
Police officer Terry McDaniel told the judge that the Turners, the parents of a son, were found in a white 2005 Chevrolet Equinox about a quarter-mile from Thomas' home. Kiero Turner had been shot five times and was dead, but Ricky Turner, shot through the back of the neck in the driver's seat, was able to tell officers that Thomas was the gunman, McDaniel testified. Turner later identified Thomas in a photo lineup, McDaniel said.
Arrested three days after the slaying, Thomas denied any involvement in the shootings. He described how he had bought marijuana from Turner but said he never got in his sport utility vehicle. Thomas' mother told investigators that Thomas had been with her and other relatives at their home when the Turners were shot, McDaniel said.
Thomas' lawyer argued further that his client's other murder case should not be held against him on the question of bail because the circumstances of that killing are entirely different. Proctor told the judge there is no question that Thomas killed 18-year-old Justin Aaron Bell of Little Rock in July 2019, but what authorities call first-degree murder is actually a case of self-defense, with Thomas shooting to protect himself.
Thomas was arrested the day after Bell, a father of one, was found fatally wounded by gunshots to the chest and legs in the 1100 block of Lewis Street by police investigating complaints about gunfire and a ShotSpotter activation that registered four shots. Officers found seven .45 caliber shell casings.
According to police reports, Bell was shot after coming to the defense of a 13-year-old boy -- Thomas' cousin -- whom Thomas and another man had accused of stealing a moped that night.
The boy told investigators Bell had stood up for him after Thomas accused him of stealing his moped and threatened to beat him up. He said Thomas and Bell had made plans to fight at the City Market but Thomas never showed up. The boy said he left and did not see the shooting.
India Scott, Bell's cousin, told police she had intervened to try to defuse the rapidly growing tension, which she blamed on Thomas' unidentified companion.
According to police reports, Scott said Thomas and the other man were about to walk away when Bell pulled up on a moped, and the unnamed man asked Bell if he was the one who'd been texting him, to which Bell replied, "Yeah, and if I was?" Scott told police.
She said Thomas and the man started shooting at Bell as he got off the moped. As Bell lay on the ground, one of the men hit him with a gun and then the two shot him some more, Scott said.
Edwin Fountain, 21, of Little Rock, who had been with Bell that night, told police he also saw Thomas shoot Bell and then run off with the unidentified man.
Thomas told detectives Bell had been egging him on by text message to fight, using the boy's phone. Thomas said he armed himself with a pistol because he knew the people with the boy to shoot at people. He said he was accompanied by another man but didn't know his name.
Thomas said that when he encountered Bell, he started to pull a pistol, and that he shot Bell in self-defense, describing for investigators how he scooped up Bell's gun as he fled before throwing the gun into an empty lot.
Court records show Thomas' bail was set at $750,000, which was reduced at his request to $100,000 by Circuit Judge Leon Johnson after Thomas had spent about six months in jail.