EL DORADO -- Ronald Pierce of El Dorado has been convicted of manslaughter after a jury trial and sentenced to 10 years in state prison.
Pierce, 52, was initially charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Willie Candley, which occurred in 2020.
According to court records, El Dorado Police Department officers responded to a call on Sept. 5, 2020, on Marsh Avenue in El Dorado.
Records state that "upon arrival, officers observed the suspect and noted the knife with blood ... on the picnic table in the front yard." Officers noted a victim "lying in the yard and bleeding" and identified the suspect as Pierce and the victim as Candley.
Pierce was arrested and Candley was transported to the Medical Center of South Arkansas, where he died of his injuries.
Investigators went on to speak to a witness -- referred to in court records as Witness 1 -- who alleged Pierce asked them for a gun "prior to stabbing Candley," records state.
Pierce allegedly "subsequently confessed" when investigators interviewed him, saying that he "had been involved in a physical altercation with Candley," "asked witness 1 for a gun," but was denied and "was armed with a knife and stabbed Candley in the torso."
The jury trial for Pierce began on June 27 and concluded the next day.