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According to court records and testimony from a previous hearing, sheriff’s deputies just happened to stop by the Walgreens on an errand when a man inside the store who reeked of marijuana caught their attention. The man had gotten out of a black Tahoe that was parked outside with the engine running.
When a second man got out of the vehicle with something in his hand, some of the deputies followed him as he drove off in a black Dodge Charger that had been parked next to the SUV.
When investigators stopped the Charger a couple of blocks from the Walgreens, the driver, 41- year- old Clinton Moore of Benton, surrendered a small bag of marijuana he had in the car trunk.
Moore told deputies he had bought the marijuana from a passenger in the SUV he knew as “Four Track,” but said he did not know the driver.
Court records show Moore was arrested for misdemeanor drug possession, but reached an agreement with prosecutors in December 2014 for the charge to be dismissed if he stayed out of trouble with the law for a year and paid a fine.
When the man who smelled of marijuana got back into the SUV in the Walgreens lot, deputies identified themselves as law- enforcement officers and ordered the man and the driver to put up their hands.
As deputies approached in their car, the SUV driver, later identified as Jones, put the SUV into reverse, backed out of his parking spot and started driving away. He drove about 350 feet before hitting Cater.
One deputy, Adam Robertson, got a good look at the driver and later identified Jones as the man behind the wheel. The vehicle got away after running over Cater but was found a short time later abandoned at a Burger King, where it had been left after striking a car in the restaurant lot.
Jones was arrested the following day. He does not have any prior felony convictions, although he had twice been charged with aggravated robbery. He was prosecuted as a juvenile for his first arrest in April 2012 when he was 16. Charges were dismissed from an August 2013 arrest.