Arkansan gets 20 years for fatally shooting woman in North Little Rock

A 29-year-old Sherwood woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday for fatally shooting a woman in North Little Rock two years ago.

Shaquanna Shlae Staten, represented by attorney Bobby Digby, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, reduced from first-degree murder, in exchange for the 20-year term, said deputy prosecutor Amanda Fields. Prosecutors also dropped a charge of felon in possession of a firearm.

Staten was scheduled to stand trial Tuesday for the July 2015 slaying of 25-year-old Latosha Laschelle Lewis at the Shorter College Gardens apartments on North Beech Street.

Lewis was found dead at the complex with a gunshot wound in her chest. Lewis had been a visitor at the complex where Staten was a tenant.

Police said Staten and another woman, Chaukana Jones, had been feuding over a man named Blake.

Staten and Jones had been angrily texting each other "all day" until Staten, armed with a small-caliber pistol, confronted Jones and Lewis outside a housing unit, according to police reports. Staten repeatedly yelled "who want me" then fired at the women, striking Lewis, who had also been involved in the feud with Staten.

Witnesses told detectives that the shooter was a woman they knew as "Quanna," and picked Staten's picture out of a police photograph lineup.

Staten was arrested the next day at her mother's home in Sherwood.

Staten has a 2008 conviction for criminal mischief in Jefferson County.

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Metro on 09/17/2017

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