HOT SPRINGS -- A Hot Springs teen was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to shooting a 15-year-old girl in the leg in June 2021 during a confrontation with the girl's boyfriend on Autumn Street.
Luther Shaw, 17, pleaded guilty in Garland County Circuit Court to first-degree battery, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and was sentenced as an adult to 15 years for the June 20, 2021, shooting after his attorneys were unsuccessful at having the case transferred to juvenile court.
Deputy prosecutor Caitlin Bornhoft said Wednesday that Shaw was charged as an adult at the time of his arrest on June 24, 2021, when he was "barely 16" and a juvenile transfer hearing was held at his attorney's request in October 2021.
At the hearing, "the judge ruled that it remain in circuit as an adult charge and the Court of Appeals affirmed it," she said.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained Tuesday, on June 20, 2021, at 11:13 p.m., Hot Springs police responded to the 300 block of Autumn Street regarding a shooting.
Officers made contact with a group of people who stated a girl had been shot and taken by private vehicle to National Park Medical Center.
Detective Mark Fallis went to the hospital and spoke to the girl, who stated her boyfriend had been having problems with another teen she knew as Luther Shaw.
The girl was later transferred to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock where she underwent surgery, the affidavit said.
Bornhoft said Shaw, who turns 18 next month, admitted at his sentencing that he got into an altercation that day with another boy at an outdoor pavilion area and the other boy's girlfriend was with him.
A warrant for Shaw's arrest was issued the day after the shooting and the case was filed under seal with a gag order issued to limit pretrial publicity.