NLR man in holdup sentenced to 10 years

A 32-year-old North Little Rock robber who shot a man during a holdup then was arrested after a second confrontation with the victim has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Sentencing papers filed last week show Jordan Adam Jones pleaded guilty to robbery, reduced from aggravated robbery, first-degree battery and theft in exchange for the sentence imposed by Circuit Judge Cathi Compton.

With two prior drug convictions, Jones faced five to 90 years in prison. The plea agreement was negotiated by deputy prosecutor Claire Maddox and public defender Brandy Turner.

Jones had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for the July 25, 2020, holdup by Compton following a non-jury trial in November 2021, but Jones successfully appealed the verdict.

Siding with Jones, the Arkansas Court of Appeals overturned the verdict and ordered new proceedings because Jones had never agreed to a bench trial by giving up his right to a jury trial, an oversight prosecutors acknowledged was a mistake.

In the July 2020 incident, North Little Rock police found Jerrell Nathan Rice Jr., 37, of Little Rock shot in the left leg in front of 803 W 24th St., across from Big D Liquor, with five 9mm shell casings nearby.

The wounded man could not tell officers what happened, but identified his assailant as “Bryan Jordan,” according to police reports and court records. The tenants told police they did not see anything or know anything about what had happened.

Rice said he’d been walking after work, carrying his work clothes, $400 paycheck, $200 cash and $50 worth of toiletries and food, when he stopped to visit an acquaintance across from the liquor store.

He told police Jordan, whom he did not know, approached and joined them and demanded his belongings. Rice said he refused and Jordan pulled a gun and pointed the weapon in his face. Rice told police he was trying to get the gun out of his face when the weapon fired twice, striking him once in the leg. The robber fled in a red Dodge Dakota.

Nearly three weeks later, on Aug. 11, 2020, police encountered Rice again while investigating a complaint about a confrontation between motorists, one of them with a gun, at 3100 Main St., American’s Best Value Inn. Police were told a man driving a red truck was blocking the car of another man, who turned out to be Rice.

Jones was the truck driver, and Rice told investigators that Jones was the man who had shot him. Jones was not arrested, with detectives obtaining an arrest warrant and taking him into custody in October 2020, about two months after the motel encounter. Jones has been jailed ever since.