Lives of struggle cross, then end in crash on North Little Rock side of Main Street bridge

Stolen truck’s wreck spurs look at ex-con’s early release

In this March 15 photo, North Little Rock Police investigate a double fatality collision on the Main Street Bridge that killed John Blanks and Ricky Anderson. Blanks, police say, was driving on the wrong side of the road when he hit Anderson, who was on a bicycle. Blanks’ truck hit a concrete barrier, ejecting him from the vehicle.
In this March 15 photo, North Little Rock Police investigate a double fatality collision on the Main Street Bridge that killed John Blanks and Ricky Anderson. Blanks, police say, was driving on the wrong side of the road when he hit Anderson, who was on a bicycle. Blanks’ truck hit a concrete barrier, ejecting him from the vehicle.

John Fitzgerald Blanks skipped a meeting with his parole officer after he was released from prison the morning of March 14.

He'd been granted early release with eight months remaining in a five-year sentence. The Arkansas Parole Board had arranged for Blanks, who'd been convicted of robbery, to live with his father in Pine Bluff and meet regularly with a parole officer until the end of November.

The parole board thought it would give Blanks a better chance to stay out of trouble than if he were released at the end of his sentence with no supervision.

The day Blanks was released from a Department of Correction unit in Gould, he signed in to a meeting with his parole officer.

Then he left without a word.

State Parole Board Chairman John Felts provided that account of Blanks' final moments under state supervision.

Blanks, 53, died the next day when he crashed a stolen pickup on the North Little Rock side of the Main Street bridge over the Arkansas River.

Ricky Anderson, 51, also died in the crash. He was riding a bicycle across the bridge just after 2:30 p.m. when Blanks sped in the wrong direction onto the northbound lane and struck him head-on, police reported.

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Photos by Brandon Riddle

Court records and interviews with people who knew Blanks and Anderson provide a picture of two men with similarly troubled pasts but whose lives were headed in different directions when they collided on the Main Street bridge that day.

For Blanks, whose family declined to comment, the crash ended a life that included decades spent in and out of prison on felony convictions ranging from robbery to criminal mischief to terroristic threatening.

Blanks was convicted of robbery in 2012 after he tried to steal hair clippers from a drugstore in Little Rock, according to court filings. Police said he shoved an employee while trying to run away, which led officers to arrest him on a felony robbery charge instead of misdemeanor shoplifting.

Blanks was released from prison on parole but arrested again in 2014 on charges of disorderly conduct and possession of drug paraphernalia. It was one of many parole violations Blanks had committed since first being sent to prison on a robbery conviction in 1996.

But Blanks got another chance. The Arkansas Parole Board this year approved his parole request and set his release for March 14.

Felts said that Blanks, while he was imprisoned, completed a substance abuse program and a course designed to improve emotional awareness and decision-making.

"We thought, OK, here's a guy we've had incarcerated and he's been back, he has a history," he said. "We thought we have eight or nine months here, let's try to get him out, get some supervision time with him, get him back on track and try to make sure that he's going to abide by the rules and regulations of parole.

"That obviously did not happen, unfortunately."

Blanks, after he ditched his meeting with a parole officer, reportedly stole a Ford F-150 from a Star City resident and drove more than 68 miles to North Little Rock.

Police said he was involved in a fender-bender near Main Street and then fled onto the bridge at a high speed. The pickup careened into a concrete barrier and then struck Anderson.

Blanks, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the vehicle and killed. The driver's side door was almost sheared off in the crash.

Police said skid marks, indicating that Blanks had applied the brakes, were found on the street.

Investigators found a red hat stuck in the vehicle's front grill.

Officers who responded to the crash recognized Anderson, according to department spokesman Sgt. Brian Dedrick. They'd seen him riding his bicycle around the area for years. Dedrick said Anderson had probably crossed the bridge countless times without incident.

"It appears it's just bad luck," Dedrick said. "It's really unfortunate."

For Anderson, the crash ended decades of intermittent homelessness, drug abuse and run-ins with police that began when he was a teenager in the 80s, according to court records.

Like Blanks, he'd been in and out prison over the years, and had been granted parole on multiple occasions only to be locked up again for violating the conditions of his release.

Anderson also had several stints in the Pulaski County jail on charges including drug possession, domestic battery and loitering for begging. He filed court affidavits in several cases that said he was unemployed and his only income was from disability payments.

Other filings show he often lived on the streets and at one point resided at an "active sober living" center.

Anderson's older sister, Betty Thomas Monk, said her brother had problems but he'd tried to "grow up" in the years before his death. She said he found a home, started going to church and worked odd jobs for a friend in North Little Rock.

Monk said she thinks Anderson was traveling to see that friend the day he died.

"He'd always be on his bike," she said. "He told me one time, 'I'm going to get a car.' I said, 'You never drove a car in your life!'"

Felts said the parole board was reviewing its decision to release Blanks, as it does with every inmate who violates parole.

"What we have to do is try to hone our skills to be better at what we do," Felts said. "But at the same time, we can't hold that against the next person."

Anderson's neighbors at the Fred W. Parris Towers public housing project in Little Rock signed a card and posted it in the lobby as a memorial. Many said they rarely saw Anderson without his maroon bike.

Craig Harrington, who lives on the floor where Anderson resided, said it always looked like Anderson had some place to be.

"Every time you see him he'd be pushing that bike or riding that bike," Harrington said. "Everywhere."

Metro on 04/17/2017

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