Repeat offender draws 8 years for having gun

A Little Rock man who in 2015 avoided a pending aggravated-robbery trial after the victim, well-known Little Rock musician T.C. Edwards, was shot to death, saw his violent past nevertheless catch up with him Wednesday.

Andre Demetrius Smalley Jr., 33, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court, where parole is unavailable, to eight years in prison on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm regarding an April 5, 2015, police stop two hours after he was filmed shooting two men outside a Wright Avenue convenience store.

He admitted in May that a 9mm pistol found in the center console of a car he was driving when it was stopped by police later that night was the same gun used in the shooting, which was captured on the store’s surveillance camera.

Smalley is set to be sentenced Monday in Pulaski County Circuit Court on a first-degree battery charge stemming from the same shooting, in which Javian Booth, then 22, was shot in the lower right leg and Anthony Atkins, then 21, was shot in the buttocks. Smalley originally faced a second-degree battery charge as well, but it was dropped in return for his guilty plea.

U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. told Smalley on Wednesday that “I was struck, as I read and reread this pre-sentence report, with all of the violent conduct in your past.”

The conduct included a 2004 federal conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm, which Marshall singled out. It also included state convictions for escape, second-degree battery and theft. Had Smalley been tried and convicted in Edwards’ robbery, he would have faced up to life in prison.

Rejecting the requests of defense attorney Latrece Gray and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ed Walker, each of whom sought a sentence of between six and seven years

for Smalley, Marshall said, “All material things considered, I believe an even harsher sentence than the one the government asked for would be more just and fair. The word has got to go out that felons cannot have guns.”

Federal sentencing guidelines recommended a sentence of 77 to 96 months, or 6½ years to eight years, based partly on Smalley’s history. Gray asked for a sentence at the very bottom of the range, while Walker suggested 82 months.

According to an account of the shooting that Walker read aloud in May, Booth and Atkins were at the gas pumps at Our Community Market at 1901 Wright Ave., shortly before 10 p.m on April 5, 2015, when three unknown men, one of whom was later identified as Smalley, walked up and asked if they had any “loud,” referring to marijuana.

Booth and Atkins laughed and said no, and one of the three other men became angry, both about the laughter and the fact that either Booth or Atkins wore a red hat.

An agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in an affidavit that the three men identified themselves as members of the Crips gang and said, “This is our territory,” and, “We’re going to make it like the 1990s,” when gang violence was prevalent in Little Rock.

After a brawl that was captured on the store’s security camera, Booth and Atkins got back in their car and drove themselves to a hospital, while the other three men fled in a maroon 2012 Chrysler 200 that police pulled over shortly before midnight at 12th and Woodrow streets. Smalley was driving, and Anthony Ashby was in the passenger seat, according to the accounts of the shooting.

Police released Smalley and Ashby that night, but after obtaining a warrant to search the car the next day and finding the 9mm pistol, officers obtained a warrant for Smalley’s arrest. He was arrested five days later while driving, this time with a .223-caliber rifle in the car.

He was originally charged with a second count of being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with the rifle, but that charge was dropped in exchange for his guilty plea to the first gun charge.

Marshall said Wednesday that he would recommend to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons that Smalley receive credit for the time he has spent in custody since his April 2015 arrest. He also ordered Smalley to serve three years’ probation after his release, during which time he must undergo substance abuse treatment, regular and random drug testing, and mental health counseling — the latter of which Gray said Smalley wanted.

“He has had a troubled background,” she said, adding that he hopes “to address some mental health issues” while incarcerated.

Smalley’s fiancee, Karen Pennington, told the judge before the sentence was imposed, “Andre has had problems in the past, but he’s actually a good guy.”

“I want to apologize to everybody that was hurt in this situation, for everything I didn’t do and everything I did do,” Smalley said.

Gray noted that Smalley’s grandmother, and more recently his mother, died while he was in custody, and that the court’s refusal to release him to attend his mother’s funeral constituted “a reality check for him … that life goes on.”

She told the judge that Smalley is also a parent, prompting Smalley to interrupt her to tell her that a daughter of his just had a baby girl.

“He’s a grandfather at 33,” Gray added, sighing.

Marshall declined to consider a victim impact statement that Michael Poe, Edwards’ close friend and caretaker, had sought to introduce. Poe, who attended Smalley’s plea and sentencing in the federal case, said he had hoped to ask the judge to impose a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years.

Smalley had been facing a jury trial in early 2015 on aggravated-robbery charges that were filed April 17, 2014, in which Edwards was considered the victim. But the charges were dropped after Edwards was fatally wounded on Dec. 7, 2014, after he left a bar, Pizza D’Action, to walk to his nearby home.

No arrests have been made in the slaying of Edwards, who was autistic, though his friends have offered a $10,000 reward for information about the murder. They also regularly attend Smalley’s court hearings.

“Andre Smalley is a dangerous, repeat offender who should not be free on the streets of Little Rock,” U.S. Attorney Cody Hiland said later Wednesday in a news release.

Hiland, who was sworn in last month, added, “Prosecuting repeat offenders who terrorize our community by engaging in gun violence will be one of this office’s top priorities. Dangerous criminals who illegally possess and use firearms should know there will be a spot in a federal prison waiting for them.”