A 38-year-old North Little Rock parolee has accepted a 40-year prison sentence for killing a man in Jacksonville.
Sentencing papers filed Monday show Brandon Dewayne "Dirt" Weston pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and no contest to being a felon in possession of a firearm in exchange for the 40-year sentence imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Cathi Compton in a plea agreement negotiated by senior deputy prosecutor Barbara Mariani and public defender Jason Kordsmeier.
Records show that Weston was on parole at the time of the murder for convictions for drugs, theft, second-degree battery, aggravated assault on a correctional employee and criminal mischief.
According to Jacksonville police reports, 36-year-old Xanus Robinson was gunned down June 4, 2020, in the parking lot of Chapel Ridge apartments, 1401 Stanphil Road, in front of Robinson's sister, 50-year-old Shalonda Lana Williams.
Williams immediately identified Weston as her brother's killer, telling investigators that the men had been arguing when Robinson began walking toward Weston, who pulled a gun and fired at least four times.
Police said Robinson had been shot in the back of his right thigh and left shoulder, with another bullet wound to the top of the right shoulder.
Robinson's girlfriend, 40-year-old Arabia Chavaun Jackson, a resident at the apartments, told investigators she had spoken to Weston that night in the parking lot, but was walking away when she heard the men arguing indistinctly. Jackson said she turned and saw Weston shooting at Robinson, describing "a light" coming from Weston's hand followed by Robinson falling to the ground. Jackson told investigators she thought the men were having a sexual relationship with the same woman.
Both women said Weston then drove away. Police quickly obtained an arrest warrant, but tracking down and arresting the parolee took police and federal agents about four months.
In custody, Weston first said he was in Tunica, Miss., when Robinson was killed but had heard talk he was being blamed for the slaying.
Confronted with the witness accounts, Weston said Robinson, along with two men Weston did not know, "ran up" on him in the parking lot. Robinson and the two strangers all started shooting, Weston told investigators, saying he did not know who the two unknown men were shooting at, but that Robinson was coming at him. Weston said he did not have a gun and did not shoot anyone. He told police he left the scene because he was scared.
Weston said there was no bad blood between him and Robinson, and that there was no romantic triangle. He said he had not been involved with the Jacksonville woman they had been rumored to have been fighting over for at least five years.
The woman told police she had not seen Robinson that night, but had talked to him and that he had been upset. The woman said she'd gone to North Little Rock to look for him but could not find him. The woman said she and Robinson had been in an off-and-on relationship but that there was nothing between her and Weston.
Police also heard that Weston's girlfriend, who also lived in the apartments, and Robinson's sister had been in a fight earlier in the evening in North Little Rock.
Investigators also talked to a female friend of Weston's who said Weston's girlfriend sent her to pick him up that night and that she did, driving him to Mississippi. The woman said Weston told her he'd shot Robinson but did not know whether Robinson died. The woman said she found out Robinson was dead after she got back from Mississippi.