El Dorado man gets 80 years for murder

EL DORADO -- A 23-year-old El Dorado man was found guilty Friday and sentenced to 80 years in prison in the shooting death of a man during a robbery attempt in July 2015.

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The two-day trial of Jeremiah Green concluded late Friday after testimony from several of Green's relatives, including his cousin Keet Miller, who faces charges in Cameron Johnson's death.

It took the jury a little more than two hours to convict Green, who was charged with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a certain person.

The charges carried penalty enhancements because the crimes were committed in the presence of a child and involved a felony committed with a firearm.

Green shot Johnson, 32, on July 5, 2015, at Hillsboro Town House Apartments. El Dorado police arrived at the scene shortly before 2 p.m. and found Johnson lying dead in the parking lot.

He had been shot once in the neck.

The trial's second day included testimony from Miller, who admitted that he was present when the shooting occurred.

Miller and Shokorey Wade, both 27, were arrested late last month on charges of capital murder, aggravated robbery, breaking or entering, and theft of property.

Attorneys on both sides and Sgt. Scott Harwell, an investigator with the El Dorado Police Department, said Miller provided conflicting accounts of the shooting during interviews.

Miller reportedly said last month that Green did not shoot Johnson and later said a masked gunman committed the crime.

Miller told the court Friday that he was talking to Johnson, also known as "Corn Dog," when Green emerged from behind the apartment building and began "pacing back and forth."

Miller said he could see the handle of a handgun in Green's pocket.

Green, nicknamed "Pig," then motioned at Miller and began running toward him, Miller said.

"He ran around me and shot Corn Dog," Miller said.

"He ran up on him, and he was saying, 'Come up off everything in your pockets,' but he didn't even get all the words out before he shoots Corn Dog. Corn Dog dropped and Pig keeps running," Miller said.

He said Green then returned to stand over Johnson, placed the gun back in his pocket and ran toward a gate on the north side of the apartment complex.

Miller said he went into the apartment building and told Wade, who lived there, what happened.

He said he also went upstairs to a neighbor's apartment and asked the people there to go outside and check on Johnson.

Resident Lasheema Stanley testified Thursday that she, Miller, and others there at the time went downstairs after Miller knocked on her door, and they saw Johnson lying on the ground bleeding.

Stanley said Miller went through Johnson's pockets and removed a backpack from Johnson's car.

Stanley's cousin, Winston Steward, testified Friday that a man whom he could not identify had removed a backpack from the vehicle.

Miller said he removed some cash and cigarettes from Johnson's pockets and handed them to Wade.

"Because of his lifestyle and what he did, I wanted to make sure he didn't have anything on him when the police came," he said, then clarified that he was referring to drugs.

Miller said he told bystanders to call 911, and he went back into Wade's apartment.

After police and emergency medical workers arrived, Miller said he left.

"I wasn't supposed to be there," he said, explaining that he had been banned from the apartment complex after a recent arrest stemming from a domestic dispute with his girlfriend who lived there.

He denied removing a backpack from the vehicle, saying he only looked inside "just in case he [Johnson] had something in there that shouldn't have been in there."

Bryce Burroughs, area manager of the El Dorado office for the Arkansas Department of Community Correction, testified that Green was released from prison in March 2015 after serving a five-year sentence for a probation revocation in a 2010 robbery.

Green was enrolled in a substance and alcohol abuse treatment program and failed to report to required meetings, Burroughs said, adding that Green was expelled from the program not long before the shooting.

"In 2010, he was a drug dealer and a thief. ... It's time for this young man to take his medicine. There's a way to keep 'Pig' off the streets, and we know what that is," 13th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney David Butler said during closing statements in the sentencing phase of Green's trial.

Metro on 11/06/2016

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