A 22-year-old man who killed a woman last year at his 2-year-old son's birthday party at a North Little Rock pizza restaurant has accepted a 50-year prison sentence, the maximum penalty short of a life sentence.
Sentencing papers filed last week show Marlon Shawn Marbley Jr. of Little Rock pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for the 50-year term imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson.
Under the terms of his plea agreement, negotiated by deputy prosecutor Jeanna Sherrill and defense attorney Jimmy Morris, the charge was reduced from capital murder. Marbley, who has no prior felonies, will have to serve 38 years before he can qualify for parole.
The victim, 32-year-old Christina Nicole Clay of Pine Bluff, was the wife of 21-year-old Ebony Nicole Curry of Little Rock, the mother of Marbley's son. They were all attending a March 2021 birthday for the toddler at the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant on Landers Road in North Little Rock when Marbley shot and killed Clay.
Clay and Marbley got into an argument during the party, with Clay and some others walking outside to defuse the situation, court filings show. Marbley, joined by a second man, followed, and Marbley renewed the argument, at one point pulling a pistol and pointing it at Clay.
Marbley's mother, 43-year-old DeWanda Woods of North Little Rock, intervened, pushing him away from Clay and telling him to leave.
After several minutes of refusing calls for him to leave, Marbley ran toward Clay as she was walking back into the restaurant. When Marbley got within a few feet of Clay, he started shooting her in front of the restaurant's entrance, firing at least 11 times. Clay was hit in the chest, arm, leg, buttocks and back.
Marbley got into his car and drove off, court filings show. He surrendered to police the next day, admitting to shooting Clay in a post-arrest interview. He has been jailed since.