A second homeless man was sentenced to prison for participating in the fatal beating of a fellow transient in Little Rock more than two years ago.
Glen Alexander Swayze, 58, of Jacksonville pleaded guilty Jan. 17 to second-degree murder in the October 2014 slaying of 39-year-old Marcus Lakeith Tidwell.
Under the agreement negotiated by defense attorney Fernando Padilla, Swayze received a 17-year prison sentence that will be followed by a three-year suspended sentence.
Eric Leon Green, 47, was the first to be arrested in Tidwell's death. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in October 2015 in exchange for a 30-year sentence.
Authorities said at the time that they knew a second man was also involved in the attack, but that they had not identified him.
As a condition of his sentence, Green had promised to testify against the second assailant. Swayze was arrested about seven months later in the River Market District.
Deputy prosecutor Kelly Ward told Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims last week that the men were arguing about some of their possessions at their transient camp in the 100 block of North Chester Street in Little Rock when Green punched Tidwell in the face, knocking the younger man to the ground, where he continued to beat him.
Tidwell suffered skull fractures from the fall and beating, and Swayze kicked Tidwell repeatedly while he was on the ground, the prosecutor said.
Tidwell, a father of three, died from his injuries in a hospital about 80 minutes after police found him. Court records show he had a history of mental health problems and had once been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Green was arrested at the scene after police found him with blood on his hands and shoes. He told detectives that Tidwell had been trying to steal from him and that they had been fighting.
Green was on probation at the time for an August 2012 second-degree battery conviction for beating another homeless man in August 2011.
Metro on 01/24/2017