The story so far ...

Sunday, December 9, 2012

— The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s latest findings concerning jailed fugitives follow a string of errors and dysfunction uncovered during a more than year-long investigation into the Phillips County sheriff’s office and the county’s justice system. Other articles in this series:

SEDRICK TRICE:

Drug dealer fell through court cracks The Phillips County sheriff’s office didn’t carry out an October 2008 Arkansas Court of Appeals order sentencing Trice to 20years in state prison. Instead, Trice remained free and went on to run a thriving multistate drug ring that dealt hundreds of pounds of marijuana and cocaine in eastern Arkansas.

Sheriff Ronnie White said his office didn’t receive the order and that he wasn’t aware of it until after Trice’s arrest by federal authorities last year.

Trice is now serving a 40-year federal prison sentence for his role in the drug crimes.

PART 1:

Some fugitives get free pass The sheriff’s policy of not entering failure-to-appear warrants into the Arkansas Crime Information Center’s database allowed fugitives to live freely in Phillips County for years without fear of arrest.

Although numerous fugitives, including Trice, were stopped for traffic offenses, arrested on misdemeanor charges orappeared in district court, they didn’t have to fear arrest on outstanding felony warrants.

One consequence of the policy: the dismissal of a case against an area pastor accused of raping a 12-year-old girl.

Another fugitive was accused of committing murder during the time he remained free.

PART 2:

Criminal cases fade away The Phillips County judicial system’s loopholes, archaic procedures and an overloaded docket resulted in numerous case dismissals because some trials weren’t held within the time limit set by law. The dysfunction also led to several miscues: A 16-year-old murder defendant’s case got lost in the system, causing delays that prompted his release while he awaited trial. During the few weeks he was free, he wasarrested in another shooting.

PART 3:

Case files show string of misses The newspaper found that 35 fugitives’ cases were vulnerable to dismissal because of long-unserved fugitive warrants. At the time, the fugitives - whofaced charges of child rape, aggravated robbery, home invasion or serious drug-trafficking charges - made up more than a third of Phillips County’s fugitive cases involving Class Y felonies, the state’s most serious offenses carrying sentences of 10 years to life in prison.

PART 4:

Gun case shows ripple effect Even though Deandra Cortez Smith faced multiple felony charges in a nightclub shooting and was wanted on a fugitive warrant in that case, no one arrested him - even when he had several brushes with the law. Since the warrant wasn’t entered into any law-enforcement database, Smith was able to walk into a pawn shop and purchase a variety of high-powered guns - a federal crime to which he admitted guilt in November.

Front Section, Pages 10 on 12/09/2012