North Little Rock teen acquitted of shooting up home

10-year term given for other offenses

Cartelious Roshaun Harris Jr.
Cartelious Roshaun Harris Jr.

An 18-year-old North Little Rock man was cleared Tuesday of accusations that he shot up a woman's home last year despite her eyewitness testimony describing him shooting at her.

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Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright found Cartelious Roshaun Harris Jr. innocent of committing a terroristic act after a 90-minute bench trial that pitted a mother, the woman whose home was shot up, against her daughter, who has a son with Harris. The Class B felony carried up to 20 years in prison.

But the judge sentenced Harris to 10 years in prison on felony charges to which the defendant had earlier pleaded guilty -- terroristic threatening and two counts of residential burglary -- that had a maximum sentence of 46 years in prison.

Deputy prosecutor Michael Wright asked for prison time, saying Harris' crimes showed the defendant had been growing more violent over time.

"This is escalating behavior, and I don't think Mr. Harris has been held accountable," Wright told the judge.

Harris' attorney had asked for probation. Willard Proctor told the judge that the nine months Harris has been in jail awaiting trial have matured him and that the teenager had never been in trouble with the law before.

Harris took the witness stand to deny any role in the Sept. 16 gunfire that sent at least six bullets into the North Little Rock home of 39-year-old Alfreda Poole.

"I admitted to what I did, but I'm not going to admit to what I didn't do," he told the judge.

Police found 11 shell casings on the street in front of the residence at 2023 W. Willow St.

Poole testified that one bullet narrowly missed her, destroying a vase in her den. Three other bullets were fired through her front door, she said.

Poole also told the judge she saw Harris fire a gun outside the house before getting into a vehicle and leaving.

But on cross-examination by Proctor, she acknowledged that from her vantage point inside the residence, she couldn't have seen Harris on her porch as she had testified.

Poole also acknowledged that she had added details to her account in her testimony that she had not told police before.

Poole said she didn't like Harris because he'd been abusive to her daughter.

While she testified Tuesday, she said she was 100 percent certain Harris, whom she called Fatman, was the gunman, Yet, she also admitted during Proctor's questioning that she had told her daughter and others that Harris was not the shooter.

Poole, a mother of three, said she had said that because she knew her daughter was telling Harris' family everything she said.

"I'm not going to tell my left hand what my right hand is doing," Poole said, telling the judge that both her daughter and Harris' mother had warned her against testifying.

Testifying for the defense, her daughter, Crystal Phillips, told the judge she had never threatened her mother but had heard the woman tell people that Harris was innocent.

"She's told plenty of people Cartelious did not shoot up the house," Phillips said. "I know he didn't because I know who did."

The real gunman is jailed on gun charges, she said, testifying that she only knew the man by his nickname, which she did not divulge.

Questioned by prosecutors why she never went to police with the information, Phillips testified she'd just learned who he was.

Harris' mother, 40-year-old Crystal Aklin, testified that Poole had called her the day of the shooting and told her Harris had done it. But Aklin said she also overheard a phone call in which Poole said Harris wasn't responsible.

She also denied making any threats toward Poole.

According to court files, Harris and another teen, Daveius Jamol Miller of North Little Rock burglarized 809 W. 19th St. in North Little Rock on Aug. 10, taking a pair of shoes, a pistol magazine and a handgun case.

Miller, 19, was identified as a suspect when his fingerprints were found on broken window glass at the scene.

A police officer who knew Harris identified him from the surveillance video of the homeowner, Andre Palmer.

Harris' right hand was wrapped in cloth on the video, and North Little Rock police had encountered him the night of the break-in with a cut right hand at a hospital emergency room. Harris had said his hand injury was caused by an attacker.

Miller pleaded guilty to breaking or entering, reduced from residential burglary, last week in exchange for six years on probation and a $1,000 fine.

On Sept. 9, Harris walked into the home of an acquaintance, Elijah Shephard, at 524 W. 16th St. in North Little Rock, ordered Shephard to cover his head with a sheet, then left with the man's laptop computer.

Shephard said the thief had pointed a gun at him and had stitches on the back of his right hand. Harris told detectives the weapon had been a BB gun, court filings show.

Harris was arrested on the charges on Oct. 18, and, after he'd been jailed for two months, repeatedly threatened to kill Deputy Destin Bilbruck in a Dec. 18 encounter in the jail disciplinary unit and tried to throw some kind of liquid on the officer, according to court filings.

Metro on 07/27/2016

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