Killer in courtroom, witness insists; North Little Rock woman says she saw defendant shoot man

Tyrun Lamont Jones
Tyrun Lamont Jones

A North Little Rock woman who said she witnessed the Christmas Eve 2014 slaying of a man in her living room refused to back down Wednesday from naming Tyrun Lamont Jones as the killer, resisting defense entreaties to recant.

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Anita Henderson, 20, testified that Jones shot Alex William Booker despite exhortations from Jones' attorney, Robert Tellez, to "tell the truth" to a Pulaski County jury and say that she did not see the shooting and wasn't even home when Booker was killed.

"You weren't even there when the shooting happened," Tellez told Henderson. "This is your chance to tell the truth."

"I was there," she responded. "I'm telling the truth."

Wednesday was day two of Jones' first-degree murder trial.

The charge against Jones, 26, is based mostly on the word of Henderson and her roommate, 19-year-old Brianna Jordan, who was Jones' girlfriend at the time.

Prosecutors say Jones also lied about his whereabouts that night when he denied that he was at the women's home in the Shorter College Garden housing complex in North Little Rock.

Jealousy is the motive for the slaying, prosecutors say, maintaining that Jones was angry because Jordan had kept up a friendship with Booker, and that Jones had used Jordan's cellphone to lure Booker to the women's apartment where he shot Booker after the men argued.

Booker, the son of Little Rock attorney and former Democratic legislator Michael Booker, was found dead in a grassy plaza in the North Beech Street apartments, far from the women's apartment.

Tellez has told jurors that Jordan killed Booker and then the women cleaned up the apartment to make it look like Jones was the killer.

Jordan, who testified on Tuesday, also told jurors that she had seen Jones shoot Booker in the back after Jones used her cellphone to text Booker.

Wednesday, Henderson testified she also saw Jones shoot the man, describing how the 27-year-old Booker was walking away, with his back toward Jones, when the defendant surprised her by opening fire. She said she did not know where Jones got his gun and didn't know he was armed until he started shooting.

During her 55 minutes on the witness stand, Henderson repeatedly denied defense accusations that she had not only told Jones that Jordan was the shooter but that her conversation with the defendant, conducted in prison, was overheard.

Her denials prompted Tellez to try to call a last-minute witness, a childhood friend of Jones who had only contacted the defense Tuesday night after the first day of trial.

That witness, Georgette Giles, testified outside the presence of the jury for the judge to decide whether she would be allowed to appear as a witness.

Giles testified that on several occasions while visiting Jones at the Wrightsville unit she had seen Henderson talking to him. Giles said Henderson had been at the prison to visit Henderson's brother.

"I heard her tell him [Jones], 'Let's put it all on Brianna,'" Giles told the judge, describing one incident.

But the judge refused to allow Giles to appear before the jury based on the arguments of deputy prosecutor John Hout. He objected to Giles being allowed as a witness because she had been allowed to hear Henderson's testimony.

Her presence in the court violates the rules of evidence, which require witnesses to be sequestered from one another so their testimony is not influenced by what other witnesses say, Hout told the judge.

The day's longest witness was detective Dane Pedersen who interviewed the women the night of the killing. He told jurors that both women were obviously distraught and fearful after witnessing the slaying.

Prosecutors also showed jurors Pedersen's hourlong interview with Jones conducted about a week after the killing. Jones told Pedersen he was at a party in southwest Little Rock when Booker was killed, while promising to produce numerous alibi witnesses.

Pedersen is shown on the video confronting Jones with cellphone records that show the defendant was in North Little Rock when Booker was killed.

The detective also testified that after the interview he tried to question Jones' eight witnesses, but they either denied they were with Jones or refused to speak with Pedersen. Among those witnesses were Jones' wife, Destiny Holmes; Jones' brother Marreo Montrail Jones; and a friend, Quincy Omar Wilbon, Pedersen told jurors.

Wilbon was subsequently killed in an April 2015 shooting in North Little Rock, which remains unsolved, although police don't have any evidence that his slaying is related to Booker's killing, the detective testified.

Proceedings before Special Circuit Judge David Laser resume at 10:30 a.m. today, with prosecutors calling their final three witnesses, among them a jail guard who will play recorded phone calls purported to show Jones trying to dissuade Jordan from cooperating with authorities.

The defense is expected to call at least three witnesses and possibly Jones. The defense maintains there were other witnesses to the shooting because Booker was shot at a party at the women's apartment. But the women have said no one was there besides themselves, Jones and Booker.

Metro on 05/05/2016

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