NORTH LITTLE ROCK -- A 78-year-old North Little Rock man has accepted a 35-year prison sentence for firebombing a neighbor's home, injuring a baby and the infant's 34-year-old aunt, because he thought the woman had stolen his gasoline can.
Sentencing papers filed Tuesday show Elmer Joseph Cool pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree battery and criminal possession of explosives in exchange for the 35-year sentence from Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims.
The plea was negotiated by deputy prosecutor Justin Brown and public defender Jordan Compton. The charges together carried a range of 21 years to life because the child victim was so young.
Court filings show Jeneva Young called North Little Rock police to her home at 218 S. Laurel St. shortly after 5 p.m. June 28, 2019, stating that a neighbor had just firebombed her home, setting fire to the front porch and yard, burning both herself and her 16-month-old nephew.
Young told police that her next-door neighbor had thrown a burning bottle at her as she sat on the porch holding her nephew. The boy suffered second-degree burns on both legs and was taken to the hospital. Young had burn blisters on her upper chest and right arm but declined immediate medical attention.
Two witnesses, Angela Denise Warren, 51, and Natalie Trumbo, 50, also told police that they saw the neighbor throw burning fluid onto the porch.
When investigators went to question Cool, the neighbor at 220 S. Laurel, he refused to leave the house. Speaking through the screen door, Cool told officers that his neighbor had stolen his gas can, and said he had asked her twice for it but she claimed not to know where the can was. Cool said he went and poured some gas into a plastic bottle, went back to the woman's house, set the bottle on fire and threw it onto the porch.
Cool pointed a can of pepper spray at officers during the encounter, with police ultimately forcing their way into the residence to arrest Cool, who fought their efforts to take him into custody. He's been jailed since.
Cool immediately asked for a lawyer, so detectives were not able to further question him about what he had done.
Young told police that she didn't know Cool's name but had been helping him get gas and put it into his lawn mower. She said he visited the house and asked her where his gas can was then left when she told him she did not know. She said she was sitting with the baby when she saw Cool approaching with a burning bottle.
Young told investigators that she jumped up to shield the baby as fire spread onto the porch, burning both of them, but she was able to kick the bottle away into the yard.
Court records show that in 2003, Cool was living in Benton when he was charged with aggravated assault. Further details were not available, but records show the charge was dropped in 2004 because the accuser stopped cooperating with authorities.
A court-order mental examination found Cool was not mentally ill. According to the report, Cool, a Norfolk, Va., native, told doctors that he's a former minister who once led a church in Virginia, and that he has a master's degree in theology and bachelor's degree in religion and philosophy. He said he left the ministry to work for more money, first at a power company and then a shipyard.
Cool said he also has lived in Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina and South Carolina, sometimes working as a medical caretaker. Unmarried and childless, Cool moved to Arkansas in 2001 and worked as a nursing assistant until he retired in 2008.
The report further describes Cool as thin and looking frail, reporting that he is in poor health with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and taking medications for hypertension and heart disease.