A Benton man who killed a 29-year-old Alexander man, whose body was found in a ditch on a dead-end Little Rock street three years ago, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the slaying that authorities say Joseph Michael Knox carried out on the orders of a Hot Springs man.
Sentencing papers filed Friday show that Knox, 20, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, reduced from capital murder, for the November 2018 death of Bobby Joe Young Jr. in exchange for a 25-year prison sentence imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson.
Knox is the last of three defendants charged in Young's murder.
Prosecutors say the man who ordered Young killed, 24-year-old Dustin Modem Brewer of Hot Springs, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, reduced from capital murder, in exchange for a 20-year prison term. Brewer's girlfriend, Adison Claire Reese, 22, of Benton, originally charged in the slaying, received a 10-year term for hindering apprehension.
Young was found dead about four days before Thanksgiving in 2018 near the end of Loretto Lane just off Mabelvale Pike, and west of North Chicot Road, by a homeowner. He'd been shot three times.
The next day, detectives interviewed Nathaniel Evans, 20, who said he had been with Young the night before he was killed. Evans had accompanied Young when the older man was supposed to buy $1,100 worth of marijuana, about a half-pound, using Brewer's money from a man known as Ham, a cousin of Young's, at an Alexander home, court filings show.
Young delivered the cash and Ham went to buy the contraband, only to return without the marijuana or the money and saying he had been robbed, Evans told police. He said when Young called Brewer to tell him what had happened, Brewer told Young he had two hours to produce the money or the drugs.
Evans said he and Young next met with Reese, Knox and Kristen VanPelt, 20, of Alexander, where they discussed how Young would get the drugs or money for Brewer. The group eventually ended up together in Evan's black Dodge Charger, and together they drove around Little Rock for some time before they ended up on a tree-lined, dead-end road.
Evans told police that they stopped on the street to switch drivers, with Reese taking over but Knox, sitting in the back seat, complained that he didn't want to sit behind Reese. Evans said Knox and Young got out of the car, but when he tried to get out to give his front seat to Young, Reese grabbed his T-shirt and pulled him back.
Evans said he heard four gunshots, Knox got back into the car alone, and they left without Young, eventually arriving at Reese's home, where Evans discovered that his car had been hit by bullets.
The night after Young's body was found, Evans said Brewer and Tyler Ray Jordan, 20, of Bryant called to tell him they were going to burn his car. Evans said he met the two at a Saline County gas station where they bought gasoline and oil for the fire.
Evans said he followed Jordan and Haylee Stewart, 21, to a location on Sullivan Road in Saline County where the Dodge was set on fire. Police found the car after it had been completely burned but were able to note the bullet holes on the rear driver's side quarter panel.
From Young's sister, Latasha Beck, investigators learned that Ham, the man who was supposed to come up with the marijuana for Young, was 31-year-old Archie Lee Butler of Alexander. Butler told him Young had given him about $1,100 to hold on to, saying later that night he had a phone conversation with Butler and several others who were with Butler and told them he had been robbed and didn't have the money.
VanPelt told investigators that Brewer and Reese had been texting back and forth during the car ride about Young being killed. She said when they stopped to change seats, Knox and Young got out of the car and then she heard five gunshots followed by screaming. VanPelt said she also saw Knox with a revolver that night.
Questioned by police, Jordan told investigators that he knew Evans' car had been used in a homicide and that's why the vehicle was burned, although he denied seeing any bullet holes on the car, marks that police said would have been clearly visible.
Jordan received a five-year term for evidence tampering, for setting the car used by the others on fire. That sentence runs concurrently with a 12-year term he received in Saline County Circuit Court after pleading guilty to second-degree battery and two counts of aggravated assault.
According to court records, Jordan shot a man, Brandon Graves, in the head at Jordan's Bryant residence, 208 N. Laurel St., in March 2019, about four months after Young was killed. Jordan also threatened Stewart and another woman visiting at the home, Kortney McClure, 19, with the weapon during the incident, records show.