Man convicted in March shooting

The only man arrested in connection with the March slaying of a 23-year-old Little Rock man at the Spanish Jon Apartments has been sentenced to 15 years in prison on a gun charge.

Alvin Walls Jr. was fatally wounded in a shootout at the West 65th Street apartment complex.

About three weeks after the shootout, Eddie Lee Davis, 30, of Little Rock was arrested on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and six counts of aggravated assault over accusations he shot at some of the people involved in the melee that turned deadly for Walls, a father of three.

Sentencing papers filed on Monday by deputy prosecutor Sarah Cowan show Davis, 30, of Little Rock pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in exchange for the 15-year prison sentence from Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza. The charge is a Class B felony that carries a 20-year maximum.

Under the terms of his plea deal, negotiated by defense attorney Bill James, prosecutors dropped the aggravated assault charges, each of which represented someone at the scene of the shooting. The others at the melee, according to court records, were Jerimane Terrell Brown, 28, of North Little Rock; Aliyah Contessa Burnett, 24, of Little Rock; Tierra Cemone Christopher, 18, of Cabot; MaKayla Rasheba Jones, 20 of North Little Rock; Maya Marsha Jones, 21, of Little Rock; and Nebrasha Taylor, 22, also of Little Rock.

Court filings, citing the findings of police Sgt. Wade Neihouse, say that a car crash between Christopher and Brown in the apartment parking lot preceded the gunplay.

After the collision, Christopher and Taylor — Brown’s girlfriend — got into a fight, the investigator reported, which was captured on security videos. Some of the footage shows Brown armed with a gun.

One witness described six women fighting before the gunfire started.

Burnett, who is Christopher’s sister and Walls’ girlfriend, can be seen waving her arms “as if she is motioning someone to come fight.” Then Walls runs up to the fight holding his waistband, according to Neihouse’s account. Another witness told police that Burnett was calling for someone named “Eddie.”

The video shows Brown shooting Walls, then firing several rounds toward a white car on the east side of the complex. according to the report.

Brown, learning that Walls had died and police were looking for him, met with investigators later that day.

He told police he had been trying to break up the fight between Christopher and Taylor when Walls came up with a “little-bitty black gun” out, so he pulled his own weapon and shot him.

Brown said he fired because he was afraid he and his girlfriend were in danger. He said the other shots he fired were at a white Ford Crown Victoria where someone was shooting at him, according to the report.

Brown was not charged in the shooting and surrendered his .40-caliber Glock pistol to police.

The security video shows a man get out of the car and start shooting toward Brown and the others. Police identified that man as Davis, according to an arrest report.

Witnesses told police the whole encounter stemmed from an earlier fight elsewhere between Taylor and Christopher, who had just split up after being roommates. Both Walls and Davis had been present at that earlier fight, according to witness accounts.

Court records show that Davis was on parole at the time of the shooting after arrests in March 2017, October 2017 and December 2017 that led to him pleading guilty in May 2018 to insurance fraud, firearm possession and marijuana trafficking.