Prosecutors, citing difficulties with witnesses, dropped charges April 26 against a Little Rock man accused of wounding a couple in a drive-by shooting that police described as the fallout from gang feuding.
Glean Albert Finley III was 17 when he was arrested 10 months ago on charges of unlawful discharge of a firearm, committing a terroristic act and aggravated assault.
Curtland Odell Watson Jr. and Amanda Odom were sitting in Odom's car in June on Montclair Road, talking to friends, when they were wounded by gunfire from a passing car.
Watson initially lied to police about who he was, identifying himself as Chris Wallace, before investigators figured out who he was. Watson claimed Finley was the shooter and told police the teenager had fired on him with an AR-15-type weapon. Watson also told police that Finley was part of the Monroe Street Hustlers gang.
Watson was the only one who identified Finley as the shooter, according to arrest reports.
Odom and their friends told detectives they did not see the shooter, and one bystander declined to cooperate with police.
Watson is now in prison, serving a three-year sentence for theft by receiving. Court records show Little Rock police arrested him with a stolen car in March 2017. Watson has convictions for robbery, theft and gun possession with arrests dating to when he was 17.
Authorities said Finley, 18, is believed to be a Monroe Street Hustlers gang member and that he had been in juvenile-court proceedings for almost two years on gun and theft charges when he was arrested.
Finley pleaded guilty April 26 to unrelated charges of breaking or entering, residential burglary and theft by receiving in exchange for a six-year suspended sentence. He was released from the Pulaski County jail the same day.
He faces theft-by-receiving charges in Faulkner County related to car break-ins at the University Park apartments in Conway.
Metro on 05/03/2018