The man who shot and killed his supervisor at a Little Rock mall restaurant in 2013 lost his bid for a court to reverse his life sentence.
On Thursday, the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the decisions by the Pulaski County Circuit Court that allowed for certain testimony ultimately used in convicting Deonte Edison, now 21, in the robbery at the Park Plaza mall Sbarro that left 25-year-old Christian Hayes dead and another employee with eight gunshot wounds.
Edison -- who was convicted of capital murder, attempted capital murder and two counts of aggravated robbery in August 2014 -- is in the Varner Unit prison in Gould, where he is serving a life sentence without the option of parole.
Edison appealed his convictions a month after his trial ended, arguing that his attorney should have been able to question a witness about her medical records. Edison's appeal also stated that the trial judge should not have allowed testimony from the first police officer who arrived at the mall after the shots were fired.
Finding no error by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson in Edison's trial, the high court upheld the conviction and sentence.
On Feb. 28, 2013, the mall had just closed when Edison and a former employee, Tristan Bryant, approached the restaurant. Edison pulled a gun on the supervisor, Hayes, and another worker, Jashonta Thomas.
After they were ordered to hand over the eatery's cash, Thomas and Hayes tried to flee from the gunman. Hayes was shot in the back and died at the mall. Thomas was hit eight times but survived, spending nearly a month in the hospital.
Before being taken to the hospital, Thomas told a Little Rock police officer that Edison shot her and Hayes.
Edison's attorney, Julia Jackson, argued that the trial court should have barred the officer from testifying and that anything he had to offer was hearsay.
State attorneys had argued that the officer's testimony was valid because of the precedent of the "dying-declarations" exception to hearsay objections.
The high court found that there was no need for the exception because the officer's testimony aligned with the facts and details offered by Thomas during the trial and, although at times redundant, was not prejudicial to Edison's defense.
Jackson also argued that the Arkansas Supreme Court should reverse the trial judge's decision that forbade her from questioning Thomas about a medical condition that may have affected Thomas' recollection of the shooting.
According to the court, one of Thomas' physicians made a note that she likely suffered from a "hypoxic brain injury"-- a shortage of oxygen -- after the shooting.
Edison's attorney argued that such a condition compromised the woman's ability to accurately remember what happened the day of the shooting and that it would have affected her identification of Edison as the shooter.
Writing for the court, Justice Paul Danielson said Edison's attorney did not proffer any evidence of how Thomas may have answered such questioning.
"Absent such [testimony], we have no way of knowing whether Edison sustained prejudice, and we would only be speculating if we were to presume prejudice and reverse on this basis," Danielson wrote.
Edison's partner, Bryant -- who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, attempted capital murder and aggravated robbery -- is serving a 40-year prison sentence at a state prison in Tucker. He will be eligible for parole in 2041.
Metro on 10/23/2015