Man gets 30 years for killing in NLR

24-year-old pleads guilty in ’12 case

Saturday, June 21, 2014

A criminal defendant whose mental health was called into question three months ago for a series of suicide attempts in the Pulaski County jail has been deemed recovered sufficiently to plead guilty to first-degree murder and to accept a 30-year prison sentence.

Antwan Lamont "Twan" Kemp, 24, admitted to the charges against him, first-degree murder and felon in possession of a firearm, in a court appearance Thursday before Circuit Judge Barry Sims. The sentence requires Kemp to serve 21 years before he can qualify for parole.

Prosecutors also dropped arson and battery charges he had accrued while in jail over allegations of assaulting jailers, having a knife in jail and deliberating setting a fire there.

Kemp was accused in the October 2012 slaying of Andre Deshawn Bell, 20, who was shot to death in the middle of the Silver City Courts apartments in North Little Rock.

Arrested about four hours after the killing, Kemp told police he had gotten into an argument with a stranger at the apartments and eventually shot the man, court files show.

Witnesses directed police to Edward "EJ" Franklin who regularly frequented the apartment of Cekita Mason, where police found Franklin and Kemp.

A bullet was discovered on the bedroom floor next to an air-conditioning vent that had been pulled away from the door. A 9mm pistol and two more live rounds were found behind the vent.

Franklin told police he'd seen Kemp pull a gun out of his pants and open fire at the victim, while another man, Corey Williams, said he'd seen Kemp with a pistol earlier in the day.

Kemp was committed to the State Hospital in March after jail officials said they could not handle his reoccurring suicide attempts, each of which required an ambulance trip to the emergency room. Kemp was even known to bite out the sutures he'd received from cutting himself in his efforts to kill himself, they told the judge in March.

State doctors who had examined Kemp last year for a possible insanity defense diagnosed him as faking mental illness.

Metro on 06/21/2014