FAYETTEVILLE -- Two of the three people accused in connection with the fatal shooting of Mario Lamont Miller during a robbery last year pleaded innocent Monday to murder charges in Washington County Circuit Court.
Steven Rice, 21, of Pine Bluff and Keishayla Hill, 22, of Stuttgart are charged with being accomplices to capital murder and tampering with physical evidence. Both were given Jan. 21 court dates before Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay.
Hill and Rice face life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty if convicted of accomplice to capital murder.
A third person, Devontae Herred, 25, of Fayetteville, was arrested and charged with accomplice to capital murder and tampering with physical evidence, according to police. Herred is set for arraignment Wednesday.
Fayetteville police were called to an area on East Robinswood Lane around 8:45 p.m. Aug. 12 to investigate a death. A caller said he had found a dead man near a wooded area. When they arrived, police found Miller, 47, of Fayetteville, lying near the trees with a gunshot wound in his head.
Police said Miller was robbed by killers who also stole Miller's 2011 Dodge Challenger.
Fayetteville police detectives, with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Forces for eastern Arkansas, western Arkansas and western Tennessee, tracked down and arrested Hill and Rice in Pine Bluff and Herred in Memphis on June 1.
The arrests were made possible by extensive use of cellphone data and information from social media postings, according to Matt Durrett, prosecuting attorney. Cellphone data showed one or two of the three suspects going to and from Miller's residence on the day he was killed. Cellphone data also places them in the area of the shooting around the time it took place, according to Durrett.
The Dodge Challenger was unusual in appearance with some custom, after-market work having been done on the car, according to Durrett. Witnesses reported seeing the car, and police obtained surveillance video from several locations showing two of the suspects in the car a few hours after the murder. Other social media postings later showed the vehicle at the home of a relative of one of the suspects in the Pine Bluff area, according to Durrett.
Durrett said other social media posts included a discussion about pawning a weapon. Police checked transactions and found records of Hill pawning a gun in a Pine Bluff pawn shop. The weapon was found and DNA testing showed Miller's blood on the gun, according to Durrett.
