Texarkana plea: Not a murderer

TEXARKANA — A Texarkana man has pleaded innocent in a fatal 2016 nightclub attack in Miller County.

The man had previously been convicted and sentenced to prison for shooting at a group that, in 2013, included the 2016 victim.

LaJason Jaquize Coakley, 23, appeared Tuesday before Circuit Judge Brent Haltom for a hearing in a courtroom at the Miller County jail and was accompanied by Texarkana lawyer Darren Anderson.

Montel Waller, a 25- yearold father, died Sept. 12 in a local hospital of complications associated with a gunshot wound he suffered Aug. 20 at the Paradise Club. Coakley was on parole for two counts of felony terroristic act and was prohibited from possessing a firearm at the time of the nightclub shooting. He was arrested Sept. 22.

The terroristic act charges stem from a June 19, 2013, shooting involving Coakley and a co- defendant. Coakley fired an assault rifle toward a group of people and at a car in a Texarkana neighborhood. Among those whose life was endangered by Coakley’s conduct in 2013 was Waller.

Waller was subpoenaed to testify against Coakley at his trial in 2014. But Coakley pleaded guilty in June 2014 to two counts of terroristic acts and was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison.

Witnesses told police the 2013 shooting was motivated by a Texas versus Arkansas rivalry. Coakley is from Texarkana, Ark., and Waller is from Texarkana, Texas, according to a probable- cause affidavit.

Coakley was paroled in August 2015 after serving just over a year in prison.

If found guilty of first- degree murder in Waller’s death, Coakley faces 10 to 40 years or life in an Arkansas prison.