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SLAYINGS ELEVATE HOMICIDE COUNT TO 14

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:22 AM CDT

After going more than two months without a homicide, Pine Bluff police were investigating two that occurred within 10 hours of each other.

The reflection of a bystander looking at the bullet holes in the glass on room 141 where James Earl Lee, 31, was shot and killed early Wednesday morning at the America’s Best Inn on Harding Avenue. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

The victims were both males who had been shot to death, and police spokesman Sgt. Greg Holland said officers had not determined if the two were related.

The two deaths bring to 14 the number of homicides reported in Jefferson County this year, 12 of those inside the Pine Bluff city limits.

Holland said the first slaying was reported at about 9:15 p.m. Tuesday, when officers were sent to the area of 15th Avenue and Mulberry Street in response to a reported shooting, and found the victim lying in the driveway of an apartment complex at 1421 S. Mulberry St., with his head on a couch pillow and two towels on him, one on his back and the other on his legs.

Jefferson County Coroner Chad Kelley identified the man as Lewis Canada, 22, of 1412 W. Sixth Ave., who was pronounced dead at the scene by Deputy Coroner Kim Phillips at 9:50 p.m. The cause of death was listed as apparent gunshot wounds to the upper body.

Sgt. Todd Williams reported that three men who were with Canada on the parking lot were yelling “Buck” had been shot in the chest. One of them said he heard two gunshots, and when he came out of an apartment, saw Canada lying in the driveway.

The other two told police they saw two black males wearing brown clothing running south around the corner of a house at the southwest corner of 15th Avenue and Linden Street, Williams said in his report. Efforts to locate the men were unsuccessful.

Less than nine hours later, at about 6 a.m. Wednesday, officers found the body of another man in a room at America’s Best Inn at 2700 E. Harding Ave.

Kelley identified that victim as James Earl Lee, 31, of 2611 W. 34th Ave., Apt. 14D, who was pronounced dead by the deputy coroner at 6:30 a.m. of apparent gunshot wounds to the upper body.

Holland said the discovery was made after police were sent to the Valero convenience store at 3000 E. Harding Ave., where a man claimed he had been shot while on the parking lot of the America’s Best Inn.

Kenneth Darrough told Officer Johnathan Fallis that three black males wearing dark clothing and masks approached him and told him to “drop it off,” and when he started running toward his car, said he heard four or five shots.

Fallis reported that he saw blood on Darrough’s shirt around the left shoulder, but Darrough refused medical treatment.

He reported that when he went to the parking lot of the motel, another officer was there and was told that the door to room 141 was open and there was a cell phone charger outside the door.

Fallis reported finding Lee face down with his hands underneath him and not breathing, with no pulse, and blood on his hands and on the floor under him. The report said Lee was wearing what appeared to be a mask on his face, and a gun was found underneath his left hand.

He also reported that there were bullet holes in the window of the room, three unspent shells on the ground in front of the room, glass fragments and bullet fragments outside the room, and multiple spent shell casings inside the room.

Kelley said the bodies of both Canada and Lee were sent to the state Medical Examiner’s Office at Little Rock Wednesday for autopsies to determine cause and manner of death.

The slayings were the first in Pine Bluff since Aug. 18 when Russell Grinstead, 52, of Pine Bluff was pronounced dead by a doctor in the Intensive Care Unit of Jefferson Regional Medical Center after he was involved in an altercation with Michael “Chad” Wilson, 33, the previous day at 3204 Orchid St.

At a court hearing Aug. 19, Circuit Judge Berlin Jones ruled prosecutors had probable cause to charge Wilson with manslaughter.

Holland said no arrests have been made in the two latest homicide cases and anyone with information should contact the Detective Division at 543-5111 or the Crime Hotline at 543-5110. He said all calls will be kept confidential and a reward may be available for information that leads to an arrest.

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