NO BOND FOR 21-YEAR-OLD IN SEPTEMBER HOMICIDE

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

A 21-year-old man will be held without bond at the Jefferson County Detention Center while prosecutors prepare murder charges against him.

On Friday, Circuit Judge Rob Wyatt Jr., ruled probable cause existed to charge Marvin Isby with capital murder and aggravated robbery.

Isby, who listed addresses in Holly Grove and Pine Bluff, is accused in the Sept. 9 death of Laron Foots, 22, of Pine Bluff, whose body was found face down near a vehicle parked in the driveway of a former day care at 1006 N. Maple St., near the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

Chief Deputy Coroner Chad Kelley pronounced Foots dead at the scene, and listed the cause of death as blunt force trauma.

At the court hearing, Deputy Prosecutor Cymber Gieringer said police found bloody fingerprints inside and outside the vehicle, and determined they didn’t belong to the victim.

She said officers also determined that the keys to the car, Foots’ wallet and cell phone were missing, and subpoenaed records from the cell phone company to try and determine to whom he had talked.

Gieringer said the break that resulted in Isby being identified as a suspect came Wednesday when police Crime Scene Technician Kim Phillips compared fingerprints found at the scene with those of Isby, who had been arrested the same day on drug charges at a Pine Bluff motel, and determined that they matched.

“He had no prior criminal record so that was the first time his fingerprints had been put in the system,” Gieringer said. “Phillips’ findings were later verified by a latent fingerprint examiner at the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory in Little Rock.”

She said Detectives Phillip Meachem and Marcus Smith interviewed Isby and after he waived his right to an attorney, detailed his activities the night of Sept. 9, and admitted taking part in the robbery and homicide.

“He said he was in the vehicle with Foots and another individual and the death was drug related,” Gieringer quoted an affidavit from Meachem as saying. “He said the other individual was going to rip Foots’ off for drugs and money, and he held Foots’ arm while the other individual, who was wearing gloves, cut Foots’ throat.”

Afterward, Gieringer said Isby told detectives the other individual jumped out of the vehicle and told him to “get rid of the body and the car, and he said he jumped over the seat and sat in the victim’s lap while he drove the car to the location where it was found, then dragged the body out of the car, took the keys, wallet, cell phone and $30 and went to his residence at 1507 W. 30th Ave., where he cleaned up.”

Gieringer said detectives went to the house where they collected a pair of shorts that Isby said he had been wearing when the slaying occurred, after getting consent from the owner to search the residence.

Police Lt. Bob Rawlinson said an investigation into the slaying is continuing and a substantial reward is available for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person or persons responsible.

Anyone with information should contact the Detective Division at 543-5111 or the Crime Hotline at 543-5110 and all calls will be kept confidential.