Two Jacksonville teenagers have been sentenced to prison for the fatal robbery of a Sherwood teen in a liquor store parking lot last year.
Sentencing papers filed Thursday -- the day before what would have been victim Seth Lamar Taylor's 19th birthday -- show that Seth Ray Allen has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, reduced from capital murder, and aggravated robbery in exchange for a 20-year prison sentence from Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims.
Allen, 19, will have to serve 14 years before he can apply for parole.
His 17-year-old co-defendant, Donnell Deshawn Davis Jr., pleaded guilty in a similar arrangement in February to first-degree murder and aggravated robbery in exchange for a 35-year term.
His first opportunity at parole will come in January 2044 when he is 41.
Allen set up the robbery, luring Taylor under the pretext of buying marijuana from him, but Davis fired the killing shot, authorities said. Davis also was shot in the encounter, wounded in the chest by Taylor's childhood friend, Antwan Wesley, who fired off at least one shot, according to arrest reports.
Davis and Allen were identified as suspects and apprehended within three hours of sheriff's deputies finding a wounded Taylor behind the wheel of his parents' maroon 2004 Dodge Durango, which had crashed into a ditch across the street from LSL Liquor store at 9127 Arkansas 161 about 10:29 p.m. July 30, according to arrest reports.
A hysterical but unharmed Wesley was nearby, the reports say. He first told deputies that he and Taylor had stopped at the Jacksonville Highway store to get something to drink when someone in a van pulled up next to them and started shooting, authorities said.
But during subsequent questioning that night, Wesley told investigators that Taylor had driven them to the store parking lot to sell some marijuana to a buyer that Taylor had met through Snapchat, the photo-sharing social media platform, authorities said.
Wesley said he didn't know who the buyer was or how much marijuana was at stake, but that Taylor had gotten suspicious about the deal because the buyer kept asking him whether he was alone or if someone was accompanying him, according to authorities. Taylor gave him a gun in case something happened, Wesley told investigators, although he could not describe much about the weapon, saying he was unfamiliar with firearms.
At the store parking lot, the buyer, whom deputies later determined was Allen, got into the backseat of the Durango, Wesley told deputies. He said Taylor and Allen were about to complete the sale when someone walked up and pointed a gun at Taylor through the driver's-side window.
Taylor and the gunman briefly struggled over the weapon before Taylor was shot, Wesley said, describing how he had fired at the shooter with the gun he had been given. Allen and the shooter both fled while Taylor tried to drive off, making it only across the highway and into the ditch, Wesley told investigators.
About the same time deputies found Taylor, investigators learned that Davis, then 16, was in the Arkansas Children's hospital emergency room with a gunshot wound in the chest. Before surgery, he told deputies that he'd been wounded in a robbery set up by Allen, authorities said.
In an interview that same night, Allen told investigators that he had arranged to buy an ounce of marijuana from Taylor for $225, although he only had $175. Allen said he drove Davis and two other friends to the store in a silver Chrysler Town and Country van. The two others stayed in the van but ran off when the shooting started, he said.
Once he got in Taylor's SUV, Allen said, he saw the front-seat passenger had a gun on his lap, so he tried to get out of the SUV to warn Davis. Allen said Davis walked up to Taylor at the driver's window and demanded the money and marijuana at gunpoint, but that he can't remember exactly what happened next, except that he heard two gunshots and ran into the woods.
Interviewed after his discharge from the hospital, Davis told investigators that Allen was giving him a ride home that night when they, with two other passengers, stopped at the liquor store for Allen to meet someone.
Davis said he saw Allen get into the other vehicle when he heard one of his fellow passengers say, "It's about to go down," the arrest reports state. Davis said he knew that meant Allen intended to rob someone because the group had talked about a robbery earlier.
Davis said he got out of Allen's van in time to hear someone in the other vehicle say, "You trying to set me up?" and then a gunshot. Davis said he ran into the nearby woods, where he realized that he'd been shot.
Confronted about discrepancies in his version of events, Davis admitted he'd been the one who pulled the gun on the driver, the reports state. Davis said he exchanged gunfire with the man's passenger, then ran into the woods, telling investigators he and the passenger then engaged in a second shootout.
Davis said he threw his pistol away in the woods. Deputies were able to find his cap and a pistol magazine, but they never found the firearm despite two searches.
Deputies also questioned the two teens who had accompanied Davis and Allen, reports show.
Kevonta Hampton of Jacksonville told investigators that he, Davis and another teen had been smoking marijuana at Allen's home that night, the reports say. Hampton said that when they ran out, after about an hour, Allen said he was going to get more and they all went with him to a liquor store on Arkansas 161.
Hampton said Allen got into an SUV parked in the lot and that Davis then went to the vehicle. Hampton said he heard Davis say, "Give it up," followed by a gunshot, so he and the other teen in the van, Tolbert Jones of Little Rock, got out and ran off, the reports say. Hampton said there was never any discussion about a robbery during the ride to the store, according to the reports.
Jones told investigators that he had dozed most of the trip to the store and hadn't known where they were going. Jones said he saw Davis cock a gun, get out of the van and walk up to the vehicle parked next to them, according to the reports. He said there was a struggle and then shots, so he and Hampton ran off, the reports say.
Jones also told investigators that he had not paid much attention to the reason for the trip to the store because he had been on the phone with a girl.
Metro on 06/02/2020