A 30-year-old North Little Rock man accused of killing the 44-year-old man police say had come to the rescue of the defendant's girlfriend accepted a 30-year prison sentence Thursday on a reduced murder charge.
Felton Earl Duncan had been charged with first-degree murder for the April 2017 slaying of Rodney Lavell Austin.
Under the arrangement negotiated by his attorney, Lee Short, Duncan pleaded guilty Thursday before special Circuit Judge John Langston to second-degree murder, four days before he was scheduled to stand trial.
Under the reduced charge, Duncan can be eligible for parole after serving 7½ years. A 30-year sentence for first-degree murder would have required him to spend 21 years in prison before he could apply for early release.
According to police reports, Austin was shot to death in front of a home on MacArthur Drive after a fistfight with Duncan. He had been taken to the street by his girlfriend, Lisa Renei Kimbrough, who had gone there to pick up her daughter, Duncan's girlfriend.
The woman, 26-year-old Karen Johanna Kimbrough, said she wanted to leave because Duncan, with whom she has a child, had been manhandling her. Austin and Duncan got into a fistfight after Austin saw Duncan hit one of the women.
Duncan ran around the house but came back with a gun -- Lisa Kimbrough called it a "big AK" -- and opened fire. Austin pulled his pistol and returned fire. He was struck several times but managed to get into Lisa Kimbrough's car and she drove him away, even as Duncan fired at her car, police said. She made it a couple of blocks before stopping at a convenience store to wait for an ambulance for Austin.
Duncan, who was on parole at the time, fled before police arrived. He was arrested about 1½ weeks later after police tracked him to a vacant home on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Little Rock. Arrested with him was Karen Kimbrough. She was charged with hindering apprehension, accused of trying to hide Duncan from authorities. Her case is still pending.
Thursday's sentence is the third time Duncan has been sentenced to prison. He has 11 prior convictions that include aggravated assault, drug trafficking, possession of stolen property and firearm violations.
Metro on 07/21/2018