A 30-year-old Little Rock man accepted a probationary sentence on Monday for shooting a drug dealer in December 2015.
Marcus Deshawn Simmons pleaded guilty to second-degree battery, reduced from first-degree battery, and possession of a firearm by a felon. The plea netted him five years on probation and a $2,000 fine.
Prosecutors also dropped a charge of committing a terroristic act as part of Simmons' plea agreement, negotiated by defense attorney Bill James.
Simmons was one of the 25 people wounded by gunfire in last month's Power Ultra Lounge shooting in downtown Little Rock.
He also is the second man to plead guilty to a shooting attack on victim Johnny Lee Murry.
The 43-year-old Murry, who has state and federal convictions for drug trafficking, robbery and escape, was shot on two occasions three months apart, both times on Colonel Glenn Road. He told police that he didn't know why he was shot.
Murry is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence for a June 2013 attack in Little Rock in which he forced his way into another man's home claiming to be a police officer. He was shot then, as well.
In the December 2015 shooting, Murry told police that he'd pulled his car over in the 7100 block of Colonel Glenn to smoke marijuana with his passenger, Ashley Danette Patillo.
He told police that he was confronted by the man who shot him, a stranger who called himself Juvie.
Police knew Juvie to be a nickname for Simmons, and Murry was able to identify Simmons as the shooter out of a police photo lineup.
Simmons told police that he'd been in class at barber college, about 2 miles away, when Murry was shot.
Patillo also identified Simmons' picture in the police photo lineup, but her testimony was barred by Circuit Judge Herb Wright after police couldn't explain why her recorded interview did not include her selecting Simmons from the photo lineup. Patillo also said her recollection of the shooting wasn't clear because of the marijuana she'd smoked and the trauma of the shooting.
Simmons, who has convictions for robbery, theft, drug trafficking, forgery and fleeing, was on parole at the time of the Murry shooting. His parole was revoked after the shooting, but he was returned to parole in July 2016 and bailed out of jail in August 2016.
Court records show that police have twice arrested Simmons in homicide cases, but murder charges were dropped both times.
Simmons was accused of participating in the July 2012 slaying of 31-year-old Terry London, a father of two who police say was mistakenly killed in a shootout between gang members feuding over marijuana. Simmons was also one of three men accused of killing 30-year-old Larry Sims during an August 2010 drug deal at the Baymont Inn & Suites on Mitchell Drive in Little Rock.
Murry nearly died the second time he was shot on Colonel Glenn Road, in March 2016, when he was struck eight times by bullets.
The gunman in that case, Michael Bernard Crawford of Little Rock, pleaded guilty in February to first-degree battery and being a felon in possession of a firearm in exchange for a 20-year prison sentence. Prosecutors also dropped an attempted murder charge.
Murry told police that he was shot during a drug deal in the 6900 block of Colonel Glenn by a man whose name he did not know. Murry said he knew the gunman as an associate of an acquaintance who arranged for them to meet for the drug deal. Murry said he also knew that the man frequented a barber shop on Colonel Glenn Road, court filings show.
A tip to police led investigators to Crawford, who has convictions for drug possession, hot checks and burglary, and whom Murry was able to identify as the shooter.
Victims of Little Rock mass shooting
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Metro on 08/09/2017