Dover slaying suspect due in court Monday

A Dover man is scheduled to appear in Pope County Circuit Court for arraignment Monday on a first-degree murder charge that he gunned down another man for beating him.

Nathaniel Z. Symonds, 19, was charged last week with the March 17 death of Ronald Dean Esserman Jr., 42, of Dover. Symonds also was charged with burglary, accused of breaking into his grandfather’s home to steal two guns and using one of them to shoot Esserman, according to court records.

He has been held in the Pope County jail since his arrest in lieu of $250,000 bond.

After the shooting at 245 Oak Meadows Road in Dover, Symonds was arrested and told sheriff’s deputies that Esserman had attacked him and kicked and hit him until he was able to escape, a deputy sheriff’s affidavit said.

In the affidavit, Symonds said he went to his grandfather’s home nearby and got a shotgun. Walking back to where Esserman beat him, Symonds said, he fired a warning shot into the air. Then he told deputies he shot Esserman.

Symonds said Esserman fell to the ground, crying out “‘I’m gonna die,’” according to the affidavit. Symonds told deputies he shot Esserman several more times as he tried to crawl away and then walked up to Esserman and shot him in the head.

Pulaski County Circuit Court records show that Symonds was involuntarily committed to CHI St. Vincent Center for Behavioral Health in Little Rock in mid-February for up to 45 days after he overdosed on methamphetamine and swallowed Drano.