Jury finds Soto-Ramos guilty of lesser murder charge in Springdale shooting

FAYETTEVILLE -- A Lowell man who shot and killed one man and wounded another in Springdale two years ago was acquitted Thursday evening of charges that would have seen him locked away for life but convicted of a lesser charge.

Franklin Antonio Soto-Ramos, 23, was charged with one count of capital murder and one count of attempted capital murder in the shooting in a McDonald's parking lot around 3 a.m. June 22, 2019.

The Washington County Circuit Court jury deliberated more than four hours before finding Soto-Ramos guilty of the lesser charge of murder in the second degree.

Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay sent the jury home for the evening and set the sentencing phase of the trial for 9 a.m. today.

Police found Carlos Alexander Ascencio, 18, and Juan Carlos Bahena-Garcia, 20, with gunshot wounds in the restaurant's parking lot. Ascencio was pronounced dead at the scene, while Bahena-Garcia was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries but survived.

Both capital charges, if convicted, carry a mandatory life term without parole.

Second-degree murder is unintentionally causing the death of another under circumstances showing extreme indifference to human life, according to Arkansas law. A person convicted of second-degree murder faces six to 30 years in prison.

Ascencio was struck by one bullet, which hit him in the right side of the chest and passed through both lungs, his heart and exited his back. Bahena-Garcia was hit multiple times in the abdomen and right arm.

According to testimony, Bahena-Garcia parked, blocking the cars belonging to Soto-Ramos and a group of his friends, then got out of his car and approached them, asking what their gang affiliation was while ripping off his shirt and beating his chest. Ascencio also got out of the car and approached the group. A third man stayed in the car.

They answered they weren't affiliated with any gang, but Soto-Ramos' brother apparently flipped off Bahena-Garcia. Bahena-Garcia punched him. Soto-Ramos got a gun from his car and started shooting.

Matt Durrett, prosecutor, urged the jury to convict on the capital charges saying there was no reasonable justification for Soto-Ramos to have shot the men.

"Those four shots were fired with purpose. Those four shots were fired with intent to kill," Durrett said. "That one punch did not justify those four shots."

Soto-Ramos said he was scared for his life.

"I've never wished to harm anyone," Soto-Ramos told jurors Thursday. "I feel terrible it had to happen that way. I never had in my mind I'm going to kill him."

Soto-Ramos said he and his friends had no way to retreat from the confrontation.

"I didn't have no options; I felt threatened," Soto-Ramos said. "I felt it was necessary to get out of the situation. I feel like it would have been one of us dead, including myself."

Bahena-Garcia testified Wednesday he thought Soto-Ramos and his friends were looking into his car and when he rolled the window down things escalated.

Bahena-Garcia said he was in a gang at the time, as were others with him, and he wanted to show he was a tough and scare the group of then mostly teenagers.

Soto-Ramos and his group fled the scene before police arrived.

Soto-Ramos was tracked through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana by pinging a cellphone belonging to Soto-Ramos' girlfriend, who was with him. Police believe Soto-Ramos was trying to reach family in Indiana.

David Hogue, Soto-Ramos' lawyer, told jurors Soto-Ramos fled because he was afraid gang associates of Bahena-Garcia would retaliate against him.

Soto-Ramos was arrested outside Indianapolis, and the gun used was found in the trunk of his car, according to Springdale police. He was returned to Northwest Arkansas and jailed until trial.