A Pine Bluff teen pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Monday in an on-campus shooting death of a Watson Chapel Junior High School classmate two years ago.
Thomas Quarles, who was 15 at the time of the March 1, 2021, shooting of Daylon Burnett, 15, entered the plea before Judge Jodi Raines Dennis in 11th District West Circuit Court, and has been sentenced to 40 years in state prison. Prosecuting Attorney Kyle Hunter announced the plea and sentence in a news release.
Quarles had faced the possibility of life in prison or the death penalty on a capital murder charge if he were to plead not guilty and then be convicted. The case was set for trial starting June 1.
Burnett died two days after the shooting at Little Rock’s Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Bail was set at $1 million for Quarles, but it was revoked following Burnett’s death, and a first-degree battery charge was upgraded to capital murder. Despite Quarles’ age, prosecutors sought to try him as an adult.
According to an affidavit, police officers responded to the shooting just before 10 a.m. and were directed to the site of the incident, a hallway near the school library. Officers found two .380-caliber shell casings next to Burnett and then cleared the school in search of the gunman, who was identified by another student.
Authorities search for Quarles on foot, and he was arrested near a home in the vicinity of campus on Sulphur Springs Road.