Trial in gunfire at graduation on

Prosecutor: Crime confessed

HOT SPRINGS — The gunman in a mass shooting that followed a May 2022 graduation ceremony admitted on video to firing a pistol indiscriminately into a crowd that he believed included people who had attacked him a week earlier, prosecutors said Tuesday during opening statements on the second day of his trial in circuit court.

“This case is not a whodunit,” Deputy Prosecutor Caitlin Bornhoft told the six-man, six-woman Garland County Circuit Court jury, noting the accused, Charles Johnson Jr., 26, told Hot Springs Police detective Mark Fallis he was the shooter during a recorded interview two days after the May 12, 2022, shooting.

According to Bornhoft and Johnson’s attorney, Mark Fraiser, while both Johnson and the fatal shooting victim, Michael Jordan, 39, were at the graduation, they did not know one another. Neither did Johnson know any of the other four attendees who were injured by gunfire during the incident, which occurred afterward in the street outside the Hot Springs Convention Center, where the graduation ceremony for Hot Springs World Class High School was being held.

Johnson is facing up to life in prison on one count of first-degree murder for Jordan’s death and up to 20 years on each of four counts of first-degree battery for the others. A previously convicted felon, he also faces a charge of possession of a firearm by certain persons and two potential enhancements because he used a firearm and committed the offense in front of children.

“I started shooting at the crowd, f*** it!” Johnson could be heard telling Fallis in the interview, a portion of which was played for the jury during Bornhoft’s opening. When Fallis noted there were police officers standing a few feet from Johnson at the time, he said, “I didn’t give a f*** about them.”

Bornhoft said the graduation night “began with excitement, crying, a sense of hopefulness about the future, and ended in chaos, bullets, bloodshed and death.” She noted Johnson, who had only been in Hot Springs for “a matter of weeks” chose to fire a gun into a crowd that included graduates, parents, teachers and children.

As people were making their way to their vehicles in the parking lots, a fight broke out near the area of Convention Boulevard and Laurel Street, Bornhoft said, which drew the attention of numerous off-duty law enforcement officers, including HSPD officers and Garland County sheriff’s deputies who were working security.

As the officers were breaking up the fight, Johnson suddenly began shooting, she said.

Jordan, who was shot from behind while running away, had been at the ceremony with his sister, Monigue West, and other family members to see his niece graduate, Bornhoft said. West, 41, “the proud mother of a graduate,” was shot in the upper right leg, and Markezon Carlton Green, 20, described as a family friend, was shot in the thigh and left ankle.

A fourth victim, Candice Hughes, 30, who was also there for the graduation of her niece, was actually trying to help a toddler who was “struggling on the ground” during the fight when she was shot in the lower left leg, Bornhoft said.

The fifth victim, Adamma Watson, 17, was actually one of the graduates that night who “felt a burning sensation in her arm” and later discovered she had been grazed by a bullet.

During his opening remarks, Fraiser noted some members of the West family had reportedly begun having trouble with some other attendees at the ceremony “to the point they sought the help of school administrators to escort them out.”

He said a fight broke out outside involving “40-plus people” and noted Johnson, who was there for his sister’s graduation, began looking for her after she had called their mother asking for help to get out of there.

“It was chaos,” he said. Minutes after HSPD Officers Stephen Parrott, James Moore and James Yerina arrived in response to the fight, Johnson began shooting, Bornhoft said, and Parrott and Moore returned fire, both shooting three times, and it was later learned Johnson was hit three times in the leg. He fled the scene and could not be located at that time.

Jordan was taken by family members to National Park Medical Center where he later died, and LifeNet personnel took West, Green and Hughes to CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs for treatment. Watson was initially taken home by her family and her injury was reported later.

Later that night, Johnson was brought to NPMC and taken into surgery for his wounds, and police eventually identified him as the shooter after matching the clothes seen on the shooter to clothing found on Johnson and in his vehicle at St. Vincent.

Johnson, interviewed by Fallis two days later, told the detective that unknown individuals had shot at him the week before, and he “believed he saw those people” in the parking lot after graduation, Bornhoft said. He said he heard them “say something” to him and started shooting into the crowd.

She said he admitted to fleeing from the police and later ditching his gun, a 9mm, which was never found. She noted four 9mm casings were found at the scene of the shooting that were determined to have all come from the same weapon.

Police also found six .40-caliber casings, which Bornhoft noted came from Parrott’s and Moore’s guns. She noted after an Arkansas State Police investigation, it was determined the shooting by the officers was “an appropriate use of force” under the circumstances.

Parrott testified when they first arrived at the fight, they saw deputies had one person in custody and were walking into the crowd to “help stop the fighting” when he saw a male “pull out a firearm and start firing into the crowd.” He noted the man was “about 15 yards away give or take” and he “immediately pulled out my duty weapon and returned fire.”

He said the man was “still actively shooting when I shot him” and then the man “took a few more steps” and Parrott “fired two more times” and then the man fled.

The trial is scheduled to resume at 8:30 a.m. today with Judge Ralph Ohm presiding.