New court dates set for 2 suspects
New court dates have been set for a man accused of killing a Pine Bluff police detective last October and for a 15-year-old charged with shooting a classmate to death during school at Watson Chapel Junior High last month.
KeShone Smith will stand trial before 11th West Circuit 5th Division Judge Jodi Dennis on Sept. 29. Smith, whose birthday is not indicated in online court records but was 19 at the time of the incident, is charged with capital murder first-degree battery of a law enforcement officer in the line of duty and two counts of first-degree battery in the Oct. 5, 2020, shootout during an investigation at the Econo Lodge Motel. The shooting left Detective Kevin Collins, 35, dead and another officer, Lt. Ralph Isaac, wounded. Another officer, Kelsey Collins, narrowly escaped injury when a protective vest stopped a gunshot directed at him.
Smith was wanted in the June 15 shooting death of Money White Jr. in Conyers, Ga., and police went to the motel to search for him on active warrants. According to an Oct. 8 story in the Pine Bluff Commercial, Smith had allegedly been eluding law enforcement at the time of his arrest after he was named a suspect along with two other Arkansas men, Desmond Marks and Carlos Penore Davis Jr. Marks is from Pine Bluff.
A second appearance in Jefferson County District Court for Thomas Quarles, 15, has been rescheduled to May 19, but Jefferson County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Will Jones anticipates the case against Quarles will be filed in circuit court prior to then.
Quarles is charged with capital murder of Daylon Burnett, 15, a fellow freshman at Watson Chapel, in a hallway while classes were changing on the morning of March 1. Burnett died two days later, and Quarles’ $1 million bond was revoked.
Police have not announced a potential motive for the shooting.
Jury trials in Arkansas can resume May 3, provided covid-19 cases in the state continue to decline and vaccinations increase, according to an order from the state Supreme Court.