Marion man gets 50 months on gun charge
A Crittenden County man whose 2020 conviction for capital murder of an off-duty Forrest City police officer was vacated last year by the Arkansas Supreme Court was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison Tuesday — more than double the sentencing guideline range of 15 to 21 months — for receiving a firearm while under felony information.
Demarcus Parker, 31, of Marion, appeared before U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. at the federal courthouse in Helena-West Helena for sentencing in the matter. Parker was indicted April 5, 2023, by a federal grand jury on one count each of knowingly possessing a stolen firearm and of receiving a firearm while under a felony information. Parker pleaded guilty to receipt of a firearm while under felony information on July 25, in exchange for the dismissal of the stolen firearm possession count.
According to a press release from the office of the U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Parker was charged by felony information in Crittenden County Circuit Court on May 14, 2018, with several felonies, including first-degree murder, unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle, criminal attempt capital murder, and forgery. Parker was accused of the April 18, 2018, shooting death of Oliver Johnson, 25, an off-duty Forrest City police officer. News reports said that Johnson was inside his apartment playing video games with his niece and other children about 3:30 p.m. when two rival gangs engaged in a shootout just outside his apartment. He was killed by a stray bullet that entered the apartment.
According to news reports, Circuit Judge Randy Philhours, the presiding judge over Parker’s murder trial, grew concerned that Parker’s trial rights were in jeopardy and allowed him to leave jail on his own recognizance in December 2019 after he had been locked up for nine months. Five weeks later on Jan. 17, 2020, Parker was stopped by West Memphis police for a traffic violation and was arrested after officers discovered a loaded pistol that was reported stolen out of Denton, Texas in 2017.
The gun charge was dismissed following Parker’s murder conviction, which was overturned in March 2023 by a divided state Supreme Court, which found that the state had exceeded the one-year deadline to bring him to trial by 40 days.
Following Tuesday’s hearing, U.S. Attorney Jonathan Ross expressed his satisfaction with the sentence, saying in the press release that Parker’s “extremely violent criminal past,” was the motivating factor for his office to seek the federal indictment following the Supreme Court ruling.
“[Tuesday], the man who an Arkansas jury found guilty for the murder of Forrest City Police Officer Oliver Johnson, but whose conviction for that murder was later dismissed on procedural grounds, has now been held accountable and punished for the subsequent offense of receiving a firearm while knowingly facing a pending charge of murder,” Ross said in the release. “Although [Tuesday’s sentence] was for a completely separate offense that happened 19 months after Officer Johnson’s murder, as soon as our office learned … that the Arkansas Supreme Court had announced its decision to dismiss the murder conviction, in order to protect the public from Mr. Parker for as long as possible, we resolved to bring any appropriate federal charges before the Arkansas Supreme Court’s final mandate would take effect.”
Ross said the case highlights the importance of the federal government’s partnerships with state and local law enforcement to keep violent offenders off the streets.
“In an act of blatant disregard for human life this defendant brutally murdered a Forrest City police officer in front of the officer’s family,” Ross said in the release. “This sentence solidifies an intolerance to this senseless act of murder and the protection of the community from villains such as this defendant.”
The release said the investigation was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with the assistance of the prosecuting attorney’s office for the 2nd Judicial District. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Julie Peters. Parker was represented in court by defense attorney Michael Kaiser of Little Rock.
In addition to the 50-month prison term, Marshall ordered Parker to serve three years on supervised release after he leaves prison. Because parole has been abolished in the federal prison system, Parker must serve at least 43 months of his sentence before he can be considered for early goodtime release.