A 22-year-old Tennessee man who fatally shot a Little Rock fraternity member in a dispute that began over some scuffed shoes committed manslaughter, a Pulaski County jury ruled on Tuesday, ending a four-day trial by ordering Darean Deshun Moore to serve the maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
Moore admitted to fatally shooting 25-year-old Kentarius Montrell "Peanut" Scott, although he could not bring himself to directly say so to jurors when he testified. Moore said he had committed no crime, telling jurors he only shot Scott to protect himself during an August 2020 confrontation in the Shackelford Road parking lot of the Twin Peaks restaurant.
Moore spent about 30 minutes testifying Tuesday, saying he had been trying to get away from Scott, but the older man would not stop coming for him, even pushing Moore's brother aside to get at him.
"I defended myself," Moore said, telling jurors he had backed down from fighting Scott due to a bad shoulder.
Pressed by deputy prosecutor Tracye Mosley -- she asked five or six times -- to describe how he came to shoot Scott, Moore would not say he fired his gun, stating only that he "defended himself." The closest admission the prosecutor received was when Scott agreed with her that he twice pulled the trigger.
Moore was charged with first-degree murder, accused of deliberately killing the unarmed Scott when he could have safely walked away from the conflict. The jury could have also found Moore guilty of misdemeanor negligent homicide or second-degree murder, a felony that involves engaging in a dangerous potentially fatal activity.
The nine women and three men on the jury deliberated almost five hours to find Moore guilty of manslaughter, which is a finding that he had acted recklessly when he shot Scott twice, once in the head and left shoulder.
Scott and Moore were part of the same group at the restaurant that night for a gathering of members of Philander Smith College's Kappa Alpha Psi chapter to watch basketball playoffs. Scott was a member while Moore was a visitor, brought along by his older brother who was a member.
According to testimony, Scott and Moore had quarreled inside the restaurant after Scott had stepped on Moore's shoes. Prosecutors said the misstep was an accident for which Scott apologized, while Moore's defenders described it as a deliberate provocation. The men agreed to settle their differences outside with a fistfight with Moore quickly backing down.
Scott died in the parking lot, and there was no dispute that Moore had killed him. The significance of what Moore did next was the subject of much argument.
Moore told jurors he fled the parking lot in a panic when others in the Twin Peaks lot started shooting. Moore said he was hoping to get someplace safe where he could get some help, including finding a lawyer.
To that end, he discarded his gun and the distinctive pink jacket he was wearing and arranged for an Uber ride, intending to get to family in Forrest City. Dropped off at a North Little Rock truck stop, he lied about who he was to police who had tracked him down, Moore said.
That flight, which took Moore 23 miles away, was proof he knew he had committed first-degree murder, deputy prosecutor Reese Lancaster said in closing arguments. Moore never tried to call police that night and rejected his brother's entreaty to get in their car to get away from Scott, the prosecutor said.
Moore then hid evidence, left the area and then tried to deceive police about his identity, Lancaster said. If others were shooting at him, it's only because they had just seen him kill their friend and had reason to believe they could be next, prosecutors said.
Lancaster further called on jurors to reject defense insinuations that because Scott had a gun in his car and a loaded clip in his pocket that Moore was ever in real danger from the older man. Moore chose to gun the unarmed man down, then run away, the prosecutor said.
"He was never punched. He was never kicked. He was never spit on," Lancaster said. "He brought a gun to a fistfight. That deadly use of force was not necessary."
Defense attorney Colleen Barnhill told jurors that Moore did not choose to flee in the face of an armed "mob" of Scott's fraternity brothers, some of whom opened fire on him after Scott was killed. Moore got rid of his jacket because the bright pink made him an easy target on that rainy night, she told jurors.
"He was being fired on by multiple sources. He was running to save his life," she said. "Darean just wanted to go home. Mr. Scott would not be stopped."
Further, Moore had been carrying his gun all night and if he had wanted to murder Scott, he had plenty of earlier opportunities, Barnhill said. Moore only used his weapon when he feared for his life, she said.
Moore had tried to walk away, but Scott was "relentless in his pursuit."
Scott had been egged on by his fraternity friends who had focused their "drunken hostility" on Moore, whom they considered an unwelcome intruder on their Twin Peaks "fellowship." She told jurors that the two fraternity members who testified -- Robert Plains Jr. and Rolandis Hall -- could not be believed because they had left Twin Peaks before police arrived, abandoning one "brother" dying and a second trying to comfort him.
Barnhill said it was significant that they did not come forward for weeks, showing that they knew they had done something wrong. She asked jurors to consider why no other members came forward, despite some accounts placing as many as a dozen members at the restaurant.
"Where were the other fraternity brothers? "Why did they not stay and talk to police?" Barnhill said. "This case is about the mob mentality that developed that night ... that wouldn't let Darean get away safely."
CORRECTION: Darean Deshun Moore spent about 30 minutes testifying Tuesday and was convicted of manslaughter in the August 2020 fatal shooting of Kentarius Montrell “Peanut” Scott at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Little Rock. A previous version of this story misstated the day of Moore’s testimony and the day of his conviction.