Little Rock man accused of killing father disputes competency findings

A Little Rock man accused of killing his estranged father in a November 2016 shooting is challenging findings by state doctors that he is fit to stand trial on manslaughter and evidence-tampering charges.

James Daniel Sparkman, who goes by Daniel, is accused of killing 53-year-old James Danthon Sparkman in a November 2016 shooting at the family home on Vega Drive. In March, prosecutors added his mother, Sandra Kay Sparkman, 55, as a co-defendant on the tampering charge.

Most recently, Daniel Sparkman has been charged with drug-trafficking and weapon counts stemming from a June 17 arrest, three days before his 25th birthday.

According to a Little Rock police report, Sparkman was found unconscious behind the wheel of a car parked at the post office at 10715 Mabelvale West Road by an officer on patrol.

Officers said they could smell marijuana in the vehicle and that there was an open backpack on the passenger seat. Inside was a large plastic bag with about 2 ounces of suspected marijuana, along with about a fifth of an ounce of possible methamphetamine, five tablets of Valium and 13 Xanax.

Sparkman had a .25-caliber pistol, the serial number scratched off, in his right front pocket and $4,510 in his left pocket, court filings show. He was taken into custody after police took him to the hospital to be checked out and has been jailed ever since.

On Thursday, Sparkman's attorney Tyson Spradlin told Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen that he will challenge findings by state doctors that Sparkman is not mentally ill. Griffen set an Oct. 22 hearing on the issue. Sparkman's case cannot move forward until the question of his competency is decided by the judge.

The mental evaluation report submitted in August states that Sparkman is fit to stand trial, finding that while he has substance-abuse issues with marijuana, alcohol and methamphetamine, the anxiety and depression symptoms he displayed were related to his legal problems, not part of a mental illness.

Sparkman's lawyer contended his client killed the elder Sparkman to protect himself, his mother and other people in the family home after the older man forced his way into the residence with a sawed-off shotgun.

James Sparkman was a parole absconder at the time. His criminal history dates to 1985 and includes convictions in five counties -- Hempstead, Howard, Miller, Pulaski and Yell -- for identity fraud, fleeing, hot checks, firearm possession, burglary and possessing contraband in jail, court records show.

The senior Sparkman was found dead in a shed behind the family home on Vega Drive, a home owned by the defendant's maternal grandmother, Frances Wooten, by Little Rock police who had been contacted by Saline County sheriff's deputies. A personal caretaker who worked at the Wooten home, Darla Elder, told the Saline County deputies that she'd seen a dead man in the hallway of the residence.

Investigators determined that the senior Sparkman had been killed by his son "during a disturbance," but released Daniel Sparkman without charges after searching the house and questioning him and other unspecified witnesses.

Sparkman was charged with first-degree murder by police three months later and immediately surrendered. He was released on bond after a day in jail.

According to the arrest affidavit, detectives found a text message from Sandra Sparkman to her son on the day of the slaying stating, "This could be the day we take have to take him out."

"Y," Daniel Sparkman responded.

The messages did not state who "him" was, but Sandra Sparkman replied to her son that the man had made threats against her.

Daniel Sparkman said he shot his father then moved the man's body to a shed with the help of a friend. Sparkman said his father had been armed with a sawed-off shotgun and threatened to kill his mother and his girlfriend, Haley Duvall.

Sparkman said when his dad pointed the gun at Duvall, he got his .380 pistol and shot the older man. He told police he was afraid to report what had happened because he smokes marijuana.

The elder Sparkman and Sandra Sparkman were divorced in 1993.

Sandra Sparkman said her ex-husband showed up about mid-morning with the gun. She said he was beating on her bedroom door and that when she opened it, she saw him fall to the floor, still holding the gun.

She told police she put the weapon in her bedroom, which was where police reported finding it.

A friend who arrived at the home after the shooter, Christopher Sliter, told investigators that he advised Daniel Sparkman to call police. But there were other people at the home and somebody said the authorities would not believe the shooting was in self-defense, Sliter said.

He told police he helped carry the body to the backyard shed and then rejoined others in the home to play video games.

Metro on 10/06/2018

*CORRECTION: Tyson Spradlin of Little Rock is the attorney for manslaughter defendant James Daniel Sparkman, 25, of Little Rock. Spradlin was misidentified in an earlier version of this article.

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