A Little Rock man, one of two arrested last year in connection with the police chief's missing gun, was arrested by order of the court Thursday because the judge said the defendant appeared to be intoxicated.
The man admitted to the judge that he had marijuana in his system but denied that it had any effect on him.
Edward McKay Williams Jr., 21, was scheduled to stand trial before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen on two counts of theft by receiving related to the recovery of Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner's pistol and a stolen gun last August. Williams faces up to 12 years in prison.
With Buckner waiting to testify, the judge called off the trial, saying the proceedings could not go forward because he could not be sure that Williams was sober.
"I ain't high," Williams told the judge, saying he wanted to go ahead with the trial. "I've got weed in my system, but I ain't high."
But Griffen said he needed to be sure Williams was clearheaded to understand the proceedings and to participate in his own defense.
"If you have weed in your system, that affects the validity of your trial," he told Williams. "I need you to have a fair trial."
Griffen ordered Williams jailed until his new trial date, Oct. 6. However, Williams could be released earlier if he is able to enroll in an in-patient drug treatment program.
Williams said he didn't mind going into treatment but told the judge that he did not want to go to jail.
"I'm really getting mad. I don't want to go to jail," he told the judge.
"Mad or not, you're going to jail," Griffen responded.
Williams also is awaiting trial on separate marijuana-trafficking charges stemming from a Feb. 24 arrest at 10:15 a.m. at the Pic-Pac liquor store at 4407 W. 12th St. in Little Rock. Police officers reported seeing him loitering near the store's no-loitering signs.
Williams had a plastic bag in his pocket that held four smaller plastic bags containing some marijuana, along with a digital scale, an arrest report said. The charges in that case carry up to 12 years in prison, and the trial is scheduled for October.
Williams was arrested last August after police responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle parked at the Shackleford Crossing shopping center on South Shackleford Road. A caller said two men in a car there might be casing the Elegant Accent jewelry store, according to an arrest report.
Police reported finding the police chief's city-issued .40-caliber Glock pistol -- which was marked with a Police Department shield -- in the lap of Nathaniel Mitchell Sullivan, who was sitting next to Williams in the car.
Buckner had reported the gun missing from his home in June 2015, around the time of his first anniversary as chief. He received a written reprimand from City Manager Bruce Moore.
The pistol was one of two issued to the chief, and Buckner said he believed that the weapon, a backup gun that he seldom carried, had been misplaced when he moved into a new home over the Memorial Day weekend.
Williams, sitting in the car's driver's seat, also had a .40-caliber pistol in his lap that turned out to have been reported stolen, according to an arrest report.
Both men were taken into custody.
Buckner has said he doesn't know the men and doesn't know how his gun came to be in the vehicle.
Williams told police that he'd been dropped off at the jewelry store but was not allowed to go inside because he didn't have any identification. He said he then saw Sullivan in the car, so he got into the vehicle to talk to him, court filings show. He denied ever having a pistol, according to reports.
Sullivan admitted to possessing the police chief's gun and a small amount of marijuana, and he was sentenced to six years on probation in November after pleading guilty to a theft by receiving count.
Prosecutors have since moved to have his probation revoked, after he was arrested on March 29, accused of driving a stolen 2014 Ford Focus in Pulaski County. He's charged with theft, theft by receiving and misdemeanor fleeing in that case.
An arrest report states that sheriff's deputies arrested Sullivan after they tried to pull over the car and he attempted to elude them. A stolen video game console was found in the vehicle after Sullivan fled from it, the report said.
Metro on 07/29/2016