A 19-year-old North Little Rock man has accepted a five-year prison sentence for shooting at a 36-year-old motorist last year, damaging the man’s car.
Sentencing papers filed Thursday show Keayon Mardelon Brown pleaded guilty to committing a terroristic act, a Class B felony, in exchange for the five-year sentence imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Cathi Compton. The sentence was negotiated by deputy prosecutor Nicole Pace and defense attorney Ephraim Neely.
No one was hurt in the March 2021 shooting in the 100 block of East 19th Street in North Little Rock, with police arresting Brown, who was 17 then, and finding the gun he used within nine minutes of the shooting being reported, court records show.
Reports of a man shooting at cars around 19th and Poplar streets brought police to the area, where witnesses told officers the shooter had run into a home at 2012 Poplar after hiding a firearm, court records show.
The residence was Brown’s home and police found him outside next to it, taking him into custody then discovering a .40-caliber pistol in the backyard where witnesses described the gunman having hidden it. Brown had the matching magazine in his pocket, according to police reports. Officers collected 14 .40-caliber shell casings nearby.
They were also called to the North Little Rock home of Phillip Mackintrush, where they found him and his gray 2007 Chevrolet Equinox, which had been hit by gunfire.
Mackintrush told investigators he had been giving a friend, 36-year-old Travaris Deshun Thomas of Sherwood, a ride from Wheatley when they realized they were being followed by a dark car with a headlight out.
To elude their pursuers, Mackintrush said he drove into the neighborhood, stopping for the stop sign at 19th and Poplar streets. Mackintrush said he heard gunfire and saw his windshield crack so he fled the area, driving at more than 100 mph at times, until he got home, where he called the police. His passenger had jumped out of the car and fled, he told police. Mackintrush said he did not see who was shooting at him.
Brown’s mother, 35-year-old Kendra Brown, told police that Brown had seen people shooting at his older brother two days earlier, an incident in which another teen was wounded, and she believed this shooting might be related, an arrest report states.
According to police reports and court records, Brown’s brother, unnamed in police reports, had been with three other people at 617 W. 22nd St. in North Little Rock when someone opened fire on them, wounding then-15-year-old Raymond Laray Hudson of North Little Rock.
Two North Little Rock men, Devin Jamar Givens, 20, and Smith’s ex-boyfriend Jimmy Daquon Washington, 21, have been charged with first-degree battery and aggravated assault and are awaiting trial.
Hudson, the wounded teen, was arrested seven months later in the shooting of another teen, Omar Terrell Anderson of Sherwood, in October 2021 by Paul’s Donuts, 2127 Main St., across the street from North Little Rock High School, where both were students. The school was locked down for an hour.
According to police reports, Anderson, then 16, was trying to buy a gun from Hudson and had paid $100 to a man with Hudson, 22-year-old Christian Lamar Howard, for the weapon when Hudson shot him.
Howard was not charged while Hudson, arrested four hours after the shooting, was charged as an adult with first-degree battery and aggravated robbery.
Last June, Hudson pleaded guilty to first-degree battery, with prosecutors dropping the robbery charge, in exchange for being sentenced indefinitely, but at most five years, to juvenile incarceration, court records show.
If Hudson is not deemed to be rehabilitated while in custody, he can be sentenced to prison, but can qualify for probation if he successfully completes the juvenile rehabilitation programs.