A prosecutor said Thursday that he plans to file a capital-murder charge next week against Latavious Johnson, the inmate accused of fatally stabbing a guard at the East Arkansas Regional Unit near Brickeys in January.
First Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Fletcher Long said Thursday that it’s too early to say whether he’ll seek a death sentence, but that he will be setting forth “the aggravating circumstances necessary” for a jury to impose such a sentence.
Johnson, 30, is accused of stabbing state Department of Correction Cpl. Barbara Ester in the abdomen with a sharpened piece of metal Jan. 20 as she attempted to take a pair of contraband shoes from him.
The weapon appeared to be made from a piece of an air-conditioning vent cover in Johnson’s barracks, a prison spokesman said Thursday.
The Arkansas State Police sent the file on its investigation of the killing to Long earlier this week.
Before a death sentence can be imposed, Arkansas Code 5-4-603 requires a juryto find that a murder involved one or more aggravating circumstances, that those outweigh any mitigating circumstances and that they justify a death sentence.
Of the 10 aggravating circumstances listed in state law, Long said, the two that apply to the case against Johnson are that the killing was committed by a person imprisoned for a felony and that the killer had previously been convicted of a felony involving violence.
Johnson is serving a life sentence stemming from the fatal shooting of his father,Johnnie Johnson, at the elder man’s home in Pine Bluff in May 2000.
Authorities said Latavious Johnson, then 18, shot his father twice in the head while robbing him of $45 in cash. Originally charged with capital murder in that case, Latavious Johnson pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Jefferson County Circuit Court in 2001.
An accomplice, Henry Carlos Pruitt, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was paroled in March 2004 and discharged from hissentence in June 2010.
Asked whether he will be asking a jury to impose the death penalty in the latest killing, Long said, “We’re not at trial yet.”
“I’m not arguing anything yet,” Long said. “That’s much later in the process.”
Correction Department spokesman Shea Wilson said in an e-mail Thursday that Long has discussed the case with department Director Ray Hobbs, but that the department “will leave the penalty to the prosecution - and ultimately to the jury.”
“It’s not our place to advocate for the penalty, but will cooperate and support the prosecution however we can to make sure Latavious Johnson is brought to justice,” Wilson wrote.
Alvin Bernal Jackson, the only other inmate to be accused of killing an Arkansas prison guard, was sentenced to death in 1996 for the killing and remains on death row.
Jackson was convicted of capital murder in the fatal stabbing in 1995 of Sgt. ScottGrimes at the Tucker Unit in Jefferson County.
Since Ester’s stabbing, Johnson has been moved to a single-man cell at the Varner Supermax Unit in Lincoln County.
Ester, 47, who initially was incorrectly described by prison officials as a sergeant on the day of the stabbing, had worked at the prison for 12 years. She was married to Lathan Ester, a disciplinary hearing officer at the prison who has worked for the department since 1994.
Wilson said the shoes that Barbara Ester was attempting to confiscate were considered contraband because they had not been issued by the department and were not on Johnson’s approved property list. She said prison officials do not know where he got them.
Officials believe the weapon he used was made from a 7- to 8-inch lever used to direct the flow of air from a vent in Johnson’s barracks, Wilson said. Since the stabbing, she said, officials have removed the levers from the vents at the prison and are studying whether any changes could be made in the vent covers’ design to make them more resistant to tampering.
“We’re trying to figure out a way to develop something to improve security,” Wilson said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 03/09/2012