Teen accepts guilt in friend’s slaying

A North Little Rock teenager who accidentally killed his best friend while the boys were playing with guns at a Maumelle home accepted a 10-year sentence for manslaughter Thursday.

Brandon Miles Davenport Jr. believed the weapon was unloaded when he shot 17-year-old Darrell Howard II in the head April 26, deputy prosecutor Scott Duncan said. The shooting occurred while the two were staying at the Gables at Maumelle apartments, 700 Union Court.

Davenport, 17, was immediately arrested. Charged as an adult, he was initially arrested for first-degree battery but was charged with manslaughter when Howard died two days later.

Davenport pleaded guilty to the Class C felony charge in exchange for the 10-year sentence from Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims.

Under conditions of his plea agreement, negotiated by public defender Andrew Thornton, Davenport will serve a five-year suspended sentence once he’s released from prison. Manslaughter is a Class C felony that carries a 10-year maximum, but because a gun was involved, Davenport, who turned 18 in July, faced a 25-year maximum.

Someone in the audience at Thursday’s hearing sobbed loudly when Davenport told the judge he was pleading guilty.

Howard, nicknamed Fiddle by his family, was a junior at North Little Rock High School who had been looking forward to graduating this year.

Howard had five brothers and sisters, and his mother, Alice Givens, told the judge that Howard’s death had “devastated and broken” the family. Knowing that he died at the hands of a teen she had loved like her own child “has crushed me to the lowest level of my life,” Givens said tearfully.

“I’ve got a million things to say, but I’m just broken,” she told the judge. “That’s the most I can say.”