Deal gives man 40 years for murder

Kidnapping, among other charges, dropped for guilty plea

A 30-year-old Jacksonville man has accepted a 40-year prison sentence for killing a 69-year-old man found naked and shot to death by the side of the road in North Little Rock.

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Shawn Everett Pilcher on Thursday admitted to shooting George Zumwalt of North Little Rock through the head in August 2013 and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, reduced from capital murder.

Deputy prosecutor Barbara Marianni recommended the 40-year term imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright and dropped related charges of kidnapping, aggravated robbery, theft, firearm possession and evidence tampering in exchange for Pilcher's guilty plea.

Zumwalt, a father of two, was found in a ditch in the 9000 block of Batesville Drive with a piece of duct tape on his right wrist, a gunshot to the neck, and evidence of multiple blows to his head and neck, according to court records.

Police who went to his home found the Windhill Drive residence on fire. After firefighters extinguished the blaze, police found blood in his bedroom in the area where the fire started.

Detectives didn't get a good lead until six weeks later when a witness directed them toward Pilcher and his co-defendants, Lamar Henderson, 23, and Robert Yancy, 26, both of Little Rock, court filings show.

A second witness said that Pilcher had asked him to help in the robbery of Zumwalt, whom Pilcher worked for, but the witness declined.

Both witnesses told police they heard the three defendants discuss robbing Zumwalt and that Pilcher had said Henderson had bound the victim with duct tape, but that Pilcher had "domed" the man, meaning that he had shot Zumwalt in the head. One witness said Pilcher told him that he had also set Zumwalt's home on fire, according to court records.

Yancy told police that he saw Pilcher in August 2013 force Zumwalt out of the man's home at gunpoint and drive away with the older man, according to court records.

Later that same day, Pilcher was cleaning out the back of a black Nissan 370Z that had belonged to Zumwalt, Yancy told police. Pilcher said he had to clean up the mess of killing Zumwalt.

The day after Yancy and the witnesses spoke with police, Pilcher was arrested in Sherwood.

He was the only defendant to be charged with capital murder and kidnapping. Henderson and Yancy were each charged with aggravated robbery and theft. They each pleaded guilty to theft and a reduced count of robbery in July, with sentencing scheduled after the charges against Pilcher were resolved.

Pilcher was on parole at the time of the slaying on a 20-year prison sentence from 2007 for separate kidnapping and robbery convictions.

In December 2006, Pilcher, who was living in Maumelle at the time, and co-defendant Justin Wiley, 32, of North Little Rock robbed Mitchell Cunningham and Kenny Nordeck at the Shallowell Apartments, 200 Lantrip Road, in Sherwood, taking $84 and an MP3 player.

Wiley pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery in March 2007. Pilcher, who had a gun during the holdup, was sentenced in July 2007 to 20 years in prison in exchange for his guilty plea to two counts of robbery.

The sentence also included Pilcher's guilty plea to kidnapping for participating in the December 2006 abduction of Sheronica Smith, 26, in Maumelle. Smith told police she had driven to Maumelle to meet up with an acquaintance, John Lee Black of North Little Rock, when a man, later identified as Pilcher, got in the back seat of her car.

Pilcher pulled her hair and put a gun to her head. When Smith tried to escape, she was caught by a woman, later identified as Pilcher's sister, Brandi Diane Pilcher, 28, who slammed Smith's head into the car door.

With all four of them in the car, Black started driving on Shawn Pilcher's order, until Pilcher had them stop the vehicle. He ordered Smith to take off all of her clothes and get in the trunk of her car, hitting her once in the head with a pistol.

Smith argued with Pilcher about complying, telling him she was pregnant, and Brandi Pilcher intervened, so Smith was allowed to put her clothes back on. Shawn Pilcher then drove the group to North Little Rock, where both Pilchers and Black got out of the car and ran away.

Black, 27, pleaded guilty to kidnapping in September 2009 in exchange for a 10-year prison sentence, while Brandi Pilcher received five years on probation in August 2007 for pleading guilty to kidnapping.

Metro on 12/20/2014

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