FORT SMITH -- The last of three juveniles charged in the January 2016 shooting death of a University of Arkansas at Fort Smith student pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison Tuesday.
James Larail Sharp Jr., 18, was sentenced in Sebastian County Circuit Court to 20 years in prison with another 20 years suspended after pleading guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping and two counts of aggravated robbery.
Circuit Judge Stephen Tabor, honoring a plea agreement between Sharp and the prosecuting attorney's office, sentenced Sharp to 20 years on each count but ordered them to be served concurrently, or all at the same time.
Sharp, then 15, was charged with his brother Shakur Sharp, then 16, and Dionte Parks, then 15, in the Jan. 23, 2016, shooting death of Kaleb Watson, 22, an electrical engineering student at the university.
Although they were juveniles, the three were charged as adults.
Shakur Sharp, now 19, who fired the fatal shots, pleaded guilty to the four charges in October and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Parks, now 18, was convicted of the four charges in a jury trial in June and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
According to trial testimony and police records, James Sharp had supplied the weapon his brother used to kill Watson. James Sharp had stolen the 9mm Colt handgun from the car of a man living on South Q Street earlier Jan. 23, 2016. The gun never was recovered.
With the gun in their possession, the brothers were looking to "hit a lick," or rob someone, and heard that Parks knew someone they could rob.
They showed up at Parks' home on Windsor Drive in north Fort Smith and Parks suggested Watson as the target. Watson lived in a townhouse two doors down from Parks, and Parks knew Watson had a PlayStation 3, a shotgun and marijuana.
Watson had befriended Parks, playing basketball with him, inviting him into his home to play video games and get high, and even gave Parks a puppy.
Parks supplied a shoestring from a pair of his shoes to tie up Watson and a tote bag that belonged to his sister for James Sharp to load up the robbery loot.
The plan was for the Sharp brothers, dressed in black with masks and gloves, to wait at Watson's back door while Parks knocked on the front door to distract Watson.
Parks then was supposed to run around to the back and go into Watson's townhouse with the Sharp brothers.
Instead, after knocking on the door, he ran home and never went inside Watson's home.
On the evening of Jan. 23, 2016, Watson and a female friend, Bailey Smith, were watching a movie when Parks knocked on Watson's front door.
Watson answered but found no one there. At that time, the Sharp brothers burst in the unlocked back door and held Watson and Smith at gunpoint.
James Sharp tied Watson's hands in front of him with the shoestring then went to a closet where Parks said Watson kept his shotgun.
Shakur Sharp stayed with Watson and Smith, pointing the gun at them. At one point, Shakur Sharp spotted the PlayStation 3 near the television and went to unplug it so he could take it.
When he bent over, Watson, who had freed himself from his binding, jumped on Shakur Sharp and the two struggled.
Before the robbery, Shakur Sharp said he would shoot Watson in the leg if he resisted, according to documents.
As they struggled, Shakur Sharp began shooting. Arkansas Chief Medical Examiner Charles Kokes testified at Parks' trial that Watson was struck by five bullets -- two in the chest, two in the legs and one that nicked the top of his left ear.
At the sound of the first shot, which Parks could hear from his home, James Sharp dropped the shotgun and ran out the back door. Shakur Sharp scooped up the PlayStation 3 but dropped it as he followed his brother out the door.
Days later, Parks' mother learned of her son's role in Watson's death and took him to the Police Department, where he eventually told investigators what had happened and identified the Sharp brothers as the home invaders.
State Desk on 08/22/2018