Friend recounts man’s slaying

Three teenagers want case transferred to juvenile court

FORT SMITH — The friend of a man gunned down in his home last year testified during a hearing Monday on whether the three suspects in the case should be transferred to juvenile court.

Bailey Smith, 21, testified in Sebastian County Circuit Court to seeing Kaleb Watson, 22, hands tied with a shoestring, lunge at a gunman as he turned away to steal a Play Station 3 at Watson’s north Fort Smith apartment.

The force of Watson’s charge sent the gunman, later identified by authorities as 16-year-old Shakur Sharp, through the drywall wall separating the kitchen and living room, she said. The two struggled. She saw what appeared to be the pistol pointing at Watson’s chest. Then, she heard four shots and the gunman fled.

Watson, with a look of shock on his face, fell to his knees clutching his chest, then fell on his face, Smith said. He was declared dead at an area hospital.

Detective Chris McCoy said Watson suffered gunshot wounds in his chest, thigh and knee and a nick on one earlobe in the shooting Jan. 23, 2016. Smith said a piece of brick from the fireplace hit her on the face after it was struck by a bullet.

Sharp, now 18; his brother James, then 15, now 16; and Watson’s neighbor Dionte Parks, then 16, now 17, were arrested and each charged with first- degree murder, kidnapping and two counts of aggravated robbery.

Their attorneys have filed motions to transfer their cases to juvenile court because they were minors when the killing occurred. The hearing on those motions is before Circuit Judge Stephen Tabor.

In a brief supporting the motion to transfer, filed last week, Shakur Sharp’s attorney Leonardo Monterrey of North Little Rock argued the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized minors are distinguishable from adults, susceptible to immature and irresponsible behavior, and vulnerable to negative influences.

Scott Tanner, ombudsman coordinator with the Arkansas Public Defender Commission, said in the hearing there are an array of programs in the state’s Division of Youth Services system designed to rehabilitate youths and give them a second chance to change their lives.

According to testimony by Fort Smith police detectives Monday, James Sharp stole a 9mm pistol Jan. 23, 2016, from the garage of a home while he, Shakur Sharp and their sister were soliciting money doorto-door for a nonexistent basketball camp.

The brothers learned from a friend with them, Darian Carter, that Parks wanted him to help him burglarize Watson’s townhouse apartment at 4700 Windsor Drive because it contained money and drugs, Detective Anthony Parkinson said. Carter declined, but Shakur Sharp liked the idea.

Shakur and James Sharp went to Parks, who lived at 4704 Windsor Drive, two doors down from Watson, and proposed to take up Parks on his idea to rob Watson, Parkinson said. Shakur Sharp showed Parks the gun his brother stole that day.

Shakur Sharp asked Parks for a bag and something to tie up Watson, and Parks gave him a tote bag belonging to his sister and the string from one of his Adidas sneakers.

Parks told Parkinson he agreed to knock on the front door of Watson’s apartment to divert him, then run around to the back door and enter with the two Sharp brothers. But instead of meeting the Sharps at the back door, Parks ran home.

So, when Smith testified she and Watson heard someone knock at the front door, Watson opened the door and found no one there. At that moment, the back door opened and two males wearing all black entered. One had a pistol.

Smith said she could see only their eyes and mouths from the masks they were wearing. She said she could tell the two were young and black.

The gunman ordered Watson to sit on the couch with Smith, she said, and told his accomplice, who was holding the tote bag, to tie Watson’s hands in front of him with the shoe string. The gunman then ordered the person with the bag to go around the apartment and take anything valuable.

The gunman took Watson’s wallet and cellphone while the one with the bag shoved Watson’s shotgun into the tote bag.

When the struggle between the gunman and Watson began, the person with the bag dropped it and ran out the back door, Smith said. After the shooting, the gunman also ran out the back door.

A records custodian with the Fort Smith School District showed Shakur Sharp was expelled from school in 2013 for shooting three girls with a BB gun.

James Sharp was suspended from school in 2015 for having sex with a girl in a girls’ restroom.

Records for Parks, who was put in special education in 2012, showed he was suspended May 1, 2015, for threatening a teacher, but the records also showed he was absent from school that day.

Testimony continues today.