Lawyers for a 31-year-old Little Rock parolee accused of shooting two people, killing one, in southwest Little Rock during an August shooting rampage across town are exploring a potential insanity defense, court records show.
Davis Lamont Jones Jr. made his first Pulaski County Circuit Court appearance Wednesday before Judge Leon Johnson, where his attorney, Cheryl Barnard, entered a plea of innocent by reason of mental disease or defect.
The plea means that doctors at the Arkansas State Hospital will examine Jones in the coming days to make a recommendation to the judge of whether Jones is fit to proceed to trial. Until the question of Jones' mental health is resolved to the judge's satisfaction, the case cannot proceed. The examination and reporting process typically take a couple of months.
Jones is facing 16 felony counts, including capital murder, attempted capital murder, fleeing, second-degree battery, felon in possession of a firearm, criminal mischief, five counts each of committing a terroristic act and unlawful discharge of a firearm.
According to arrest reports and court records, 20-year-old Brandon Mackintrush of Little Rock, a father of one, was fatally shot at 5:14 p.m. as he was making a purchase at the counter of the Valero gas station at 6500 Mabelvale Cutoff.
The man standing behind Mackintrush, 46-year-old Alexis Oliver of Little Rock, was shot in the head by the same shooter. The shooting was recorded on the store's security system and shows the victims, who arrived at the store separately, being shot by a man in a white T-shirt and red shorts with a Nike logo.
The killer had entered the store after parking a gray Mercedes Benz at the gas pumps. After shooting the men, he ran to the car and fled. Police broadcast a description of the car, and about 15 minutes later, State Police troopers spotted a car matching the description near Geyer Springs Road in the parking lot of the Shell convenience store at 10105 Interstate 30.
The troopers tried to stop the vehicle, but the Mercedes fled, leading to a brief pursuit. The chase ended with troopers using the Precision Immobilization Technique maneuver, a controlled ramming of the fleeing vehicle, near the intersection of Roosevelt Road and State Street, where the driver, identified as Jones, was arrested. He was dressed like the gunman shown on the store's video cameras. Police found three guns and "numerous" spent bullet casings in the car.
Following his arrest, Jones complained of lower body pain at the police station, and officers called an ambulance for him. Jones punched one of the treating paramedics, 23-year-old Mizael Zamudio, in the face as the younger man tried to assist him. Because of his combative nature, detectives chose not to question Jones before taking him to jail.
Authorities have also charged Jones with shooting at six cars, striking five of them, in west Little Rock about two hours before Mackintrush was killed. Four of those vehicles were occupied.
Most of the gunfire occurred around 3 p.m. Kyasia Humphrey, 22, and Stanley Lacefield, 23, of Little Rock, told police they were in a white 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe waiting on West Markham Street to turn left onto North Taylor Street when a green or brown Mercedes pulled up next to them and someone in the car fired a round through the front passenger window next to Lacefield.
About two minutes later, Shannon Ball, 51, and Brian Ball, 58, reported that they had been stopped on westbound Chenal Parkway about to turn left onto Autumn Road when a silver or gray "luxury sedan" drove past them and shot at a white sedan in oncoming traffic.
The shooter continued to fire at the other car as it passed their gray 2014 GMC Sierra, which was hit by a bullet in the front bumper. Shannon Ball said the shooter's car headed west on Chenal Parkway before turning north, possibly into a parking lot.
The white sedan driver was 25-year-old Zachary Johnson of Little Rock, who said he had been stopped on Chenal to turn left onto Autumn when the driver of a silver or gray car heading toward him reached out of the driver's side window and started shooting at him, although Johnson's 2020 Honda Insight was not struck.
Roneisha Anderson, 23, and Daweesha Parson, 21, told police their car had been shot up at the intersection of West Markham Street and South Bowman Road. They said they were on Bowman stopped at the Markham light when a man in a possibly green Mercedes pulled up next to them and started shooting.
Police noted bullet strikes on the 2014 white Nissan Altima and removed one bullet from the driver's side. Parson was later able to identify a photo of Jones as the driver who shot at her.
Further, Hellena Lawson of Maumelle, 37, told investigators that she had been driving west on Chenal Parkway in her 2014 white Honda Accord when she heard a loud noise while pulling into Chenal Commons shopping center at 12801 Chenal Parkway. Lawson said she later found a bullet hole in the back of her car when she got home.
Devarius Stephens, 31, reported that someone shot up his 2013 gold Chevrolet Malibu at the Muse Apartments, 13111 Chenal Parkway, about 4 p.m., shortly after he got home from work. Stephens told police he had heard the gunfire. A witness, 42-year-old Raymond Pruitt, said he had seen a man walk up to the car and open fire on it before leaving in a silver or gray Mercedes.
Police have also matched shell casings found on West Markham Street and at the shopping center to a .40-caliber pistol found in Jones' car, while casings found at the Muse Apartments shooting were found to have come from a 9mm handgun also seized from Jones' vehicle. Police also have video footage from the apartments that shows Jones with that 9mm gun, raising the weapon after he walks out of camera view.
Records show that Jones is on parole on an eight-year prison sentence he received in June 2017 in exchange for pleading guilty to charges of residential burglary, felon in possession of a firearm, third-degree domestic battery and criminal mischief.
Court records show that Jones, carrying a 40-caliber pistol, had kicked in the front door of the Fair Brook home of his ex-girlfriend, 31-year-old Kierra Parks of Little Rock, then pistol-whipped her in the face with the gun. Parks told police that Davis also bit her on her face and head.
After the attack, Davis went outside and used a manhole cover to beat on her car. Police immediately went to Davis' home and arrested him. He denied knowing anything about what had happened to Parks. Conditions of his sentence require him to serve a four-year suspended sentence once he's served his prison time.
Eligible for parole as of January 2019, Jones was approved for early release in April 2021 after his parole had been denied or delayed six times.
Davis was first sent to prison in December 2008, receiving an 18-year sentence after pleading guilty to a theft charge related to an armed robbery in Faulkner County. His co-defendant in that case, Ashten Larue Keaton, now 32, was sentenced to 20 years after pleading guilty to aggravated robbery.