Man’s term is 6 years in threats case

A 38-year-old Jacksonville man has been sentenced to six years in prison for threatening to shoot up Jacksonville High School and kill his 16-year-old stepson, with some of the threats made directly to a police officer.

Sentencing papers filed last week show Patrick Riley Pleasant pleaded guilty to three counts of terroristic threatening in exchange for the six-year term imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims in a plea deal negotiated by deputy prosecutor Scott Duncan

and Pulaski County Public Defender Bill Simpson. Pleasant faced a maximum of 18 years; each count is a Class D felony that carries up to six years in prison.

Court records show Pleasant made the threats on three occasions over a three-week span two years ago. He was first arrested in September 2019. Pleasant, a Texas native, did not show up for his first circuit court appearance in January 2020 and was living in Austin, Texas, when he was arrested later that same month.

Court records show that Pleasant called Jacksonville police on Aug. 21, 2019, to demand that officers arrest his 16-year-old stepson, claiming that the boy had bitten him on the arm a week earlier. Told by police that officers could not immediately arrest the boy and that Pleasant needed to go through the process of swearing out an arrest warrant, Pleasant told the officer, “that young man bit me and it ain’t gonna be wrong if I kill him … because I’m a bad person I will do it.”

Questioned further, Pleasant said he would go to the school and “do something to him for doing this to me,” and he confirmed he wanted to kill the boy before abruptly hanging up the phone.

Two weeks later, Stevie Eskridge, a deacon at Mount Pisgah Baptist Church on Ray Road in Jacksonville, where Pleasant had been a member, reported that Pleasant had left messages for him via Facebook about wanting to shoot up the high school, harm the boy and kill himself, court filings show.

On Sept. 12, 2019, Pleasant called the school and asked whether the boy and his brothers, Pleasant’s other two stepsons, were in class. Pleasant said the teens’ mother had wanted him to make sure they were in school, but the school wouldn’t provide any information because Pleasant wasn’t listed as an approved contact.

That same day, Assistant Principal Russell Crowell received an email from Pleasant stating, “I’m going to kill all of the kids.”

Police, who had obtained an arrest warrant shortly after Pleasant’s first call to police, arrested him the following day.

Pleasant was initially deemed unfit to proceed after a February 2020 psychological evaluation conducted by court order at his lawyer’s request had indicated he might be intellectually disabled but was possibly exaggerating those symptoms.

He was committed to the Arkansas State Hospital for treatment, and eight months later, in October, state doctors determined his disability was slight and not sufficient to render him unable to stand trial, court records show.

The boy’s mother filed for divorce shortly after Pleasant was arrested, reporting they had separated in June 2019 after 3½ years of marriage.

The couple had no children together, and the divorce was finalized in January 2020.