A 47-year-old Little Rock man accused in a May 2016 shooting has been acquitted at trial by a Pulaski County jury that deliberated 31 minutes.
All prosecutors could show was that someone fired a gun into a group of people and wounded one of them, defense attorney Ron Davis said Friday, the day after the verdict. But they could not prove his client, Reginald Darnell Simmons, was the shooter or that the victim, 43-year-old Stevie Deshon Binion, had been deliberately targeted by whoever fired the gun in the 4200 block of West 23rd Street.
According to police reports, Little Rock officers found Binion on the front porch of his home at 4219 W. 23rd St. shortly before 2 a.m. May 1, 2016. He was bleeding from a gunshot in his left arm and collapsed as police arrived. Officer Elle Briley had to perform first aid until an ambulance arrived.
Binion's mother, 63-year-old Isabella Burse, told investigators that the shooting stemmed from a feud about street parking. She said a friend of Binion's was parked in front of the neighbor's house at 4224 W. 23rd, which angered their neighbor "Earl," who went outside and fired two shots into the air.
Burse said Earl then handed the gun to his nephew who also fired the gun before both men fled in a white sport utility vehicle, which police saw leaving the area. Officers reported seeing Binion's brother, 36-year-old Lee Charles Burse Jr., fall off the vehicle while trying to stop it.
Simmons surrendered to police three weeks later. He did not testify during the three-day trial before Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen that ended Thursday. Court records show Simmons has previous convictions for stalking, domestic battering, residential burglary and theft.
The homeowner, 74-year-old Earl Lee Sims, was not charged. He was arrested in a separate shooting at his home last year.
Court records show that Sims is awaiting trial on a first-degree battery charge, accused of shooting 45-year-old Darrell Dewayne Gibson on Oct. 21, 2017. In court filings, Sims states that the shooting was in self-defense.
According to a police report, officers called to the home found Gibson lying on the living room floor with an unarmed Sims standing near him. Gibson told detectives that Sims had shot him. Sims directed police to a gun on a nearby table and told investigators it was the weapon he had shot Gibson with, the report said.
Sims was arrested after police interviewed him and three other people who were in the home: his 60-year-old wife, Lillie Mae Sims, and visitors Rotonda Williams, 44, of North Little Rock, and 62-year-old Joan Belcher of Little Rock.
Property records show Sims and his wife own four of the 10 houses on the block.
Metro on 11/04/2018