Second teen brother in 2018 double shooting pleads, gets 10-year term
The second of two teen brothers arrested in connection with a double shooting in the summer of 2018 was sentenced to 10 years in prison last week after pleading guilty to charges in Garland County Circuit Court.
Fredrick Eugene Scott Jr., 18, formerly of Hot Springs but now listing a Mabelvale address, pleaded guilty on Monday, Aug. 23, to committing a terroristic act, punishable by up to life in prison, and two counts of first-degree battery, punishable by up to 20 years, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison on each count, to run concurrently.
His accomplice and brother, Julius Lamar Rutledge III, 19, had pleaded guilty March 25, 2019, to two counts of first-degree battery and was also sentenced to 10 years on each count, to run concurrently, while the terroristic act charge was withdrawn by prosecutors who had maintained Scott was the actual shooter in the incident.
Scott and Rutledge were both arrested on July 27, 2018, the day after a shooting in the 200 block of Rector Street in which a woman, 21, and a 17-year-old female were both seriously injured during a confrontation with the two brothers.
Timothy Beckham, Scott’s attorney, had filed a motion on Aug. 8, 2018, to have the case against Scott, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, transferred to juvenile court. His motion was denied by Judge Marcia Hearnsberger on Sept. 20, 2018, based on the severity of the crime, the fact Scott had allegedly planned to shoot a male drug dealer who was with the women because he suspected him of shooting up a relative’s house earlier in the day, and because 17 shots were fired.
She also noted Scott’s school records which “show a multiyear pattern of physical threats and anti-social behavior,” including multiple in-school and out-of-school suspensions for “fighting, bullying, disrupting class and terroristic threats.”
According to the probable cause affidavits for Rutledge and Scott, on July 26, 2018, around 9 p.m., Hot Springs police responded to the 200 block of Rector and found the woman slumped over the driver’s seat of a blue Nissan Versa with a gunshot wound to her right abdomen, while the 17-year-old was found on the ground at the rear of the car with gunshot wounds to her left chest and wrist.
Witnesses said two males walked to the passenger side of the vehicle and one of them leaned over and began speaking
to one of the women inside the vehicle. Moments later, several shots were fired and the two males ran west down Rector.
Both victims were transported to area hospitals for treatment and both later underwent surgery.
The next day, Detective Mark Fallis had developed Rutledge and Scott as possible suspects in the shooting. The juvenile victim came to the police department and viewed a photo lineup and identified Rutledge as one of the two males who had approached the vehicle before the shots were fired.
She said she was lying in the back seat when Rutledge and the other male approached the passenger side of the car and Rutledge leaned in and spoke to the woman. At that point, the other male started shooting and then both males fled.
Fallis contacted Scott and he agreed to come to the police department with his parents. He was interviewed with his father present and admitted to having a gun and shooting into the vehicle in an attempt to shoot the male occupant.
He reportedly told Fallis he and his brother went up to the car after his brother arranged a meeting with another male, who was also in the car, to buy marijuana.