Benton man gets 25 years in slayings

A 31-year-old Benton man has accepted a 25-year prison sentence for killing two Little Rock men just more than five years ago. A witness told authorities that Matthew Devonta Chism shot the victims because he was frustrated by how long they were taking to find some automotive tools.

Sentencing papers filed last month show that Chism pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm in exchange for the sentence imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson. The plea agreement was negotiated by senior deputy prosecutor Leigh Patterson and defense attorney Ron Davis. Arrested the day after the slayings, Chism has been jailed ever since.

The investigation began shortly after 10 a.m., Jan. 4, 2019, when a passerby found 56-year-old Robert Lee Curlett fatally wounded by gunfire in the parking lot of Coleman Brothers Auto Shop, 1424 W. Roosevelt Road, according to court records and police reports. Neighbors and passersby reported hearing gunshots and seeing a man with an assault-style rifle on the shop grounds.

Curlett, the father of one who was known as “KoolAid,” occasionally lived at the shop in exchange for doing odd jobs, including working on cars, for the owner. He’d been shot in the stomach and left leg, with the wounds appearing to have been inflicted by a rifle.

About the same time police received complaints about a flurry of gunshots in the area, the neighborhood of Dr. Martin Luther King Drive and Roosevelt Road, with one caller reporting that the shots were fired by a man driving a red Nissan north on MLK.

As officers searched the area, the second victim, 38-year-old Christopher Dewayne Carter, was dropped off at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital emergency room by a man driving a red Nissan Altima. Carter had four gunshot wounds.

Video from the ER shows a large man in a red and white shirt driving a red sedan with a broken back window, pull up, hoist a second man out of the passenger seat, put him on a gurney brought out by medical staff then leave.

Carter’s sister, 46-year-old Phyllis Carter of Memphis told investigators she’d gotten a phone call from someone who called himself Perry telling her that her brother had been shot. The call came from her brother’s phone, she said.

Police tracked down the Nissan owner, 37-year-old Shantae Wilson, who told investigators that Carter was her boyfriend and she had lent him her car that day.

Wilson said she’d since gotten a phone call from a friend of Carter’s who told her that Carter had been shot and taken to Children’s Hospital. The caller further told her that the Nissan had been parked at 23rd and Elm streets.

Police found the car at 4522 W. 25th St., the home of 43-year-old Perry Dewayne Brown. He wasn’t home when police arrived but his mother told police he’d arrived at the residence in the car with blood on his clothes.

The Nissan had several bullet strikes to the trunk with apparent blood inside the front and passenger seats.

Bullet strikes ran from the rear to the front of the car. The driver’s seat had been shot up, with a large amount of blood pooled on the floorboard. Inside the car was a rifle bullet matching the shell casings found at the scene.

Police found Brown, with blood on his clothes and hands, about nine hours after the slayings.

He told detectives he’d been contacted through Facebook that morning by “Matthew,” a longtime family friend whom he thinks of as a nephew.

Brown said “Matthew,” later identified as the defendant Chism, asked him to come down to the Motel 6 where he was staying, which Brown said he agreed to do.

Brown said the pair had been hanging out at the motel for a while when he was called by Carter, also a friend.

Brown said he invited Carter over to the motel room, with Carter arriving in the red Nissan.

The three were at the motel room for a time before Brown said he asked Carter to take him to the auto shop because he had locked his keys in his car and Curlett was going to lend him some tools to get into the vehicle.

Chism asked for a ride, saying he needed to get to the area of 18th and Chester streets, which is nearby, Brown said. Chism brought along a duffle bag, Brown told police.

He said they found Curlett at the auto shop, telling police that he and Curlett then began searching for something to use to unlock Brown’s car.

Chism, who was waiting in the Nissan with Carter, grew impatient and angry because he thought the search was taking too long, Brown said, describing how he had to tell Chism to calm down a couple of times, at one point yelling at Chism to calm his “fat face” down.

Chism continued to become more frustrated, Brown said, telling police he heard Chism call out, heard a gunshot then looked over and saw him with a rifle.

“Man, y’all think I’m playing out here or something,” Chism said, before firing the rifle again, according to Brown.

Brown said he ducked for cover as the shots continued. He said he made his way over to the Nissan where he found Carter, in the driver’s seat, had been shot in the stomach. Brown said he pushed Carter into the passenger seat and drove to the hospital.

The day after the murders, police realized that officers had encountered Chism about two hours after the shooting.

Chism had been the subject of an overdose call from the Little Rock Mental Health Clinic, 1100 N. University Ave., with officers standing by as Chism was taken by ambulance to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

He was still in the hospital on Jan. 5, 2019, the day after the slayings, and police took him into custody there after he was released. Chism declined to answer police questions.

The rifle he had used in the murders was not found but police were able to match the shell casings to the scene of a Sept. 16, 2013, shootout between two unknown men in the 4200 block of West 15th St. No one was injured in that incident.