Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson set a May 18 date for the capital murder trial of one of two teenagers accused of fatally shooting a 10-year-old girl in a Little Rock park earlier this year.
Both prosecutor Jayme Butts-Hall and defense attorney Bill James on Friday requested the spring trial date for 17-year-old Eric Hall of Little Rock to ensure that all forensic evidence testing is complete.
Hall and Ladarius Darnell Burnett, 18, of North Little Rock are charged in the March shooting at Boyle Park that killed Ja'Aliyah Hughes and wounded Kejaun Clifton McGill, 23, of North Little Rock. Prosecutors seek a life prison sentence for the pair, with Burnett scheduled to stand trial in April.
Hall and Burnett were arrested the day after the slaying and have been jailed since. They had been identified almost immediately as suspects because Burnett was the boyfriend of one of Ja'Aliyah's sisters, who saw him riding in a white car that had been circling in the area where the girl was with her friends and family, according to an arrest affidavit. The car was being driven by a second person whom none of them knew.
Ja'Aliyah's mother, Yuquita Bradley, told police that the car's driver got into an argument with McGill. Bradley said she could see the driver had a gun in his waistband, the affidavit says.
According to the affidavit, Bradley told police that Burnett next argued with her daughter, who was his girlfriend, shortly before Burnett got out of the car and began shooting at the crowd, saying he was going to "air" out the area, which police say is slang for shooting. Bradley said as the crowd began to run, she saw that Ja'Aliyah and McGill had been shot.
Her daughter told police that she knew the driver as "Chop," a friend of Burnett's whom she had recently met, affidavits say. Police later identified Chop as Hall, arrest affidavits state.
She said she also witnessed the argument between McGill and Hall at the park, with McGill flashing a gun in his waistband as words became heated, the affidavits say. The girl told police she had turned to get into a car when the shooting broke out, describing how the wounded McGill got into the car with her.
She said she got out of that vehicle and saw that Ja'Aliyah also had been shot. The girl told police she didn't see anyone shooting but knows Burnett and Hall to regularly carry guns, according to reports.
McGill's girlfriend Jazzmen Williams told police that she saw McGill's encounter with Burnett and Hall. Williams said the pair got out of the white car, with Hall walking up to McGill and begin arguing. Hall pulled out his gun and shot a round into the air before pointing the weapon at McGill and firing a shot, the affidavits say.
Williams said she also saw Burnett running around the car shooting his gun before the pair got into the vehicle and drove away, the affidavits say. She said McGill never fired a gun.