FAYETTEVILLE -- A judge in Washington County set a trial date Monday for a Lowell man charged with capital murder and attempted capital murder in a 2019 Springdale shooting.
Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay gave Franklin Antonio Soto-Ramos, 23, an Aug. 11 trial date.
Police officers were flagged down at the Kum & Go, 1260 E. Robinson Ave., just after 3 a.m. June 22, 2019 and were told there was a shooting in the parking lot at the neighboring McDonald's, according to a news release from police.
Police said Carlos Alexander Ascencio, 18, was killed in the shooting. Juan Carlos Bahena-Garcia, 20, was injured.
Witnesses told police Ascencio, Bahena-Garcia and a third man in a wheelchair entered the parking lot where they aggressively approached a group of people who were standing around their cars. Gang signs were "thrown." A physical fight ensued. Then, shots rang out, witnesses said.
One witness told police Soto-Ramos' brother was punched in the face. Franklin Soto-Ramos then got a gun from a nearby car and started shooting at the victims before he fled the scene, witnesses said.
Soto-Ramos was tracked through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana by pinging a cellular phone that belonged to Soto-Ramos' girlfriend, who was with him. Police believe Soto-Ramos was trying to reach family in Indiana.
Soto-Ramos was arrested in the early morning hours of June 22, 2019 outside Indianapolis, according to Springdale police.
He was returned to Northwest Arkansas and booked into the Washington County Detention Center with no bond set.
Soto-Ramos also faces a battery charge related to an altercation in the jail last year.
Capital murder, if convicted, is punishable by either life in prison with no possibility of parole or the death penalty.