Detective describes shot that killed Arkansas high school student; teen's bail stays at $200,000

From left to right: Xavier Porter, Quincy Parks and Trevone Miller
From left to right: Xavier Porter, Quincy Parks and Trevone Miller

A gunshot to the throat killed a Sylvan Hills High School student earlier this year, a detective testified Monday, giving the first public accounting of how 17-year-old Bryan Allen Thompson died.

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Thompson was shot in the right side of the neck with a .38-caliber pistol, Sherwood detective Frank Spence said during a bail-reduction hearing for Xavier Porter, 17, of North Little Rock, one of three teenagers charged in Thompson's death.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright denied the request to reduce bail.

Thompson's body was found April 21 in his 2008 Chevrolet Cobalt in the parking lot of the Bill Harmon Recreation Center at 51 Shelby Road in Sherwood, police have said. He w̶a̶s̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶r̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶g̶u̶n̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶* had a bag of marijuana between his legs, according to police.

The day after the discovery of the body, police arrested Porter and Trevone Hayse Miller, 14, and Quincy Parks, 15, both of Sherwood. All three were charged as adults with capital murder and aggravated robbery. The arrest affidavits have been sealed.

Spence told Wright that doctors had removed a .38 caliber-class bullet from Thompson's body, but that investigators were not able to conclusively match it to the revolver found in the closet at the North Little Rock home where Parks and Porter, who are cousins, had lived.

Police believe Parks is the killer, based on surveillance video from the recreation center, text messages investigators have found on Parks' and Porter's phones, and statements Porter and Miller have made to the police, Spence said.

A text message read in court for the judge, purported to be from Parks, states that the 15-year-old shot Thompson when the older boy reached for his own gun.

Porter told investigators that Miller, the youngest of the defendants, came up with the idea to rob Thompson, the detective said.

Porter and Thompson attended Sylvan Hills and worked at the same Texas Roadhouse restaurant.

The detective testified that the evidence shows Porter called Thompson to ask him to bring Parks' cellphone to the recreation center because Parks had left the phone in the back seat of Thompson's car.

But the call was a pretense to lure Thompson into an ambush, Spence testified.

Text messages police have found show the defendants had considered taking Thompson to an empty home on Emerald Cove where they sometimes hung out, the detective said.

On the day of the killing, an Emerald Cove resident had called to complain about a group of boys, one of them carrying a gun, hanging out around the residence, Spence said.

Surveillance video from the Shelby Road center showed the three teens and another boy in the center parking lot before Thompson arrives, the detective testified. He told the judge that the school resource officer at Sylvan Hills was able to identify three of the four teens seen on the recording.

The recording shows Porter and the fourth boy, who police have determined was not involved, leaving the center before Thompson drove up.

The video shows Parks and Miller getting into Thompson's car, then Parks getting back out and firing one shot into the vehicle, the officer testified.

After his arrest, Miller told police that he had seen Porter give Parks a pistol and $20 to buy drugs before Thompson arrived.

Miller said that he had been carrying a BB gun that looked like a Beretta pistol, and police found the gun where Miller said he'd dropped it after the shooting, the detective told the judge.

In arguing against reducing the $200,000 bail set when Porter was arrested, deputy prosecutor Scott Duncan called the teen a flight risk. He pointed out that Porter had initially run from police, who had shown up at his workplace to question him about the killing.

Duncan also said it was likely that someone in Porter's family had called to warn him that police were looking for him, since officers had just been at his home asking about him. Porter had told his employers that he had to leave for a family emergency, according to testimony.

Authorities have built a case against Porter based on statements he's made to police, the interview with Miller, video recordings that put him at the scene of the killing and phone records, the prosecutor said.

Porter's attorney, Ron Davis, asked that the judge not hold Porter's brief attempt to run away against the teen, saying the youth had made a childish mistake out of fear when the officers arrived.

Davis disputed that the case against Porter is as solid as prosecutors claim, saying that much of it is based on stories told by his co-defendants, who Davis said are trying to downplay their own roles in the killing.

Their stories don't even always make sense, Davis said, particularly Miller's claim that he saw Porter give Parker a gun and money to buy drugs. Davis asked who plans to buy drugs from someone they're going to rob.

Metro on 07/19/2016

*CORRECTION: No gun was found with the body of 17-year-old Bryan Allen Thompson, a Sylvan Hills High School student who was shot to death in his car in April at the city of Sherwood recreation center on Shelby Road. This story incorrectly described what Sherwood police found in Thompson’s car.

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