A 38-year-old man implicated in two shootings five months apart this year at separate Little Rock hotels has admitted to both of them in exchange for a 12-year prison term.
Sentencing papers filed Wednesday show Keyionta Keyion Raymond of North Little Rock pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree battery in exchange for the 12-year term imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson. He faced a maximum of 40 years in prison on the two Class B felony charges.
Raymond was first arrested Feb. 27, at the the Americas Best Value Inn on Shackleford Road, after he was identified as the gunman who wounded 45-year-old Marvin Smith, by witnesses and Smith himself.
According to arrest reports, the men had been staying in adjoining rooms, and Smith's girlfriend told investigators Smith supposedly owed Raymond $50.
Raymond spent about two months in jail until he was able to post $50,000 bond in April. He was next arrested on June 22 after shooting Kaderius Landon, 23, of Edmondson in the left knee at the Atria hotel at 6100 S. University Ave. Raymond has been jailed ever since.
Raymond wouldn't answer questions about what had happened, but his girlfriend told police that Raymond had confronted Landon because she thought Landon had stolen some of her money. The woman later said Raymond told her he had been protecting her from Landon, and she directed investigators to a gun hidden behind a toilet, arrest reports show.
Raymond's plea was negotiated by deputy prosecutor Cameron Coker and public defender David Sudduth. His 12-year sentence includes prison time for a charge of impairing the operation of a vital public facility due to him tearing off a sprinkler head in the jail in April.
A felony charge of possession of prohibited articles related to the discovery by jailers that Raymond and a cellmate had marijuana was dropped. Raymond still faces a felony criminal mischief charge in Conway County where he is accused of crashing his maroon Ford F150 pickup into Mission Union Baptist Church in Morrilton in August 2020.