Man gets 50 years in slaying at diner

77-year-old shot during robbery try

The North Little Rock man authorities say killed a 77-year-old restaurant customer during a botched robbery accepted a 50-year prison sentence Thursday.

Marquis Diquan Earl Parker, 23, will have to serve 35 years before he qualifies for parole.

He’s the last of the three men involved in the robbery attempt to accept a prison sentence, and the one identified by prosecutors as the masked gunman who shot Harold Donald “Tweety” Byrd at the Frontier Diner in Little Rock.

Byrd, a father of two, Army veteran and retired Union Pacific electrician, was shot in the head as he stood in line to pay for his lunch. Byrd was a regular customer at the restaurant on Interstate 30.

Deputy prosecutor Barbara Mariani said Parker pleaded guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder, reduced from

capital murder, and aggravated robbery for Byrd’s slaying.

Police say Parker tripped in the doorway of the restaurant and accidentally fired his weapon as he and co-defendant Adrian Devonte Avery, 22, stormed the eatery at lunchtime wearing masks.

In March, Avery pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, reduced from capital murder, and aggravated robbery in exchange for a 35-year prison sentence.

The getaway driver, Corey Lamont Eskridge, 22, of North Little Rock pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery in December in exchange for a 10-year prison sentence and a promise to testify against his co-defendants.

Parker’s 50-year prison sentence includes punishment for his guilty pleas to aggravated robbery charges for the holdups of Moshey Harris at the AGC Foodmart at East Broadway in North Little Rock and Kamran Ali at the Boost Mobile store on Baseline Road in Little Rock. Those robberies occurred in the two days before Byrd was killed.

Although Avery was not charged in either of those holdups, prosecutors have said they believe that he participated in both of them as well.