Man sentenced to 10 years in prison for battery, drug charges
A local man was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday after pleading guilty in Garland County Circuit Court to felony charges involving the shooting of another man last summer and possession of 4 pounds of marijuana and a gun last December.
Leray G. Davis, 36, pleaded guilty to first-degree battery and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with 10 years suspended, and to simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms and was sentenced to 10 years, with both sentences to run concurrently. Additional felony charges of possession of a controlled substance with purpose to deliver and theft by receiving of a firearm were withdrawn by prosecutors.
According to the affidavit on the battery charge, on Aug. 13, 2016, Garland County sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of shots fired with injury at a mobile home in the 200 block of Highway 290. They arrived to find the victim, Michael Justin Belt, 29, with a single gunshot wound to his hip.
Belt was transported to CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs as the dispatcher received a call stating the shooter, later identified as Davis, could be found at a residence on Alana Drive.
Arkansas State Police troopers responded to the Alana Drive residence and spoke to Davis, who admitted he shot someone and told them the gun was in his 2008 Dodge Charger. Troopers retrieved the handgun and took Davis in custody.
During an interview
at the detention center, Davis admitted he went to the Highway 290 residence to speak to Belt “out of frustration” because Belt had damaged the residence on Alana Drive for the second time. He said he and Belt had argued and he then shot Belt. Davis was later released on $5,000 bond.
Belt was later charged with a felony count of residential burglary and a misdemeanor count of third-degree domestic battery for allegedly breaking into the residence at Alana Drive and assaulting his then girlfriend.
According to the affidavit on the possession charge, on Dec. 14, 2016, agents with the 18th Judicial District East Drug Task Force were contacted by the Little Rock Police Department regarding a search warrant they executed on a package scheduled to be delivered to the Alana Drive residence which was found to contain 4 pounds of highgrade marijuana in multiple vacuum-sealed packages.
Shortly after 3 p.m., DTF agents delivered the package to the Alana Drive residence and a woman, 37, at the residence told them the person expecting the package was not home, but would be shortly. She told them to put the package by the front door, which they did, and agents then maintained surveillance on the home.
A few minutes later, a man, later identified as Davis, exited the front door, picked up the package, put it in a 2007 Infiniti and drove away. Agents stopped the vehicle, made contact with Davis and confirmed the package was still in his possession. He also told them he had a loaded handgun in the car.
Agents recovered the gun, which was determined to have been reported stolen in 2014, and also found five hydrocodone pills in the center console.
Davis admitted the marijuana package was his and that he had bought the gun about six months earlier from an unknown white male. He also admitted to taking his girlfriend’s prescription pills for his own use. Davis was arrested at that time on multiple charges and later released on $100,000 bond.