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TWO TEENS HELD ON CAPITAL MURDER ALLEGATION

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Friday, October 23, 2009 11:35 PM CDT

Two Pine Bluff teenagers will be held without bond while prosecutors prepare capital murder charges against them.

On Friday, Circuit Judge Rob Wyatt Jr. ruled prosecutors had probable cause to charge Aleisha Sims, 18, and Marcus McAfee, 15, with capital murder, aggravated robbery and attempted theft of property stemming from the shooting death of James Earl Lee, 31, on Wednesday.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Kyle Hunter said McAfee, who is in the sixth grade at First Ward School, will be charged as an adult in the death of Lee.

Lee, along with McAfee and Bruce Edward Shelton Jr., 18, who is still at large, had gone to America’s Best Inn at 2700 E. Harding Ave., to rob another man, Kenneth Darrough, 28, who had spent the night with Sims at the motel, Hunter said.

A police report said Lee was found in room 141 at the motel, which had been rented by Darrough, and was wearing what appeared to be a mask on his face and a gun was found under his left hand. He was pronounced dead at 6:30 a.m. by Deputy Coroner Kim Phillips, who listed the cause of death as gunshot wounds to the upper body.

The report also indicated that there were bullet holes in the window of the room, glass fragments and bullet fragments outside the room, and multiple shell casings inside the room.

Reading from an affidavit from police Detective Bill Wiegand, Hunter said Sims and Darrough had spent the night smoking marijuana and “hanging out,” and during the course of the night, Sims was text messaging “the whole time.”

“Sims was setting up Darrough to be robbed of cash and marijuana,” Hunter said.

“At about 6 a.m., Sims demanded to be taken home and when she and Darrough left the room, they were approached by three armed men wearing masks who demanded that Darrough “drop it,”’ Hunter said, adding that two of the men were carrying pistols and the third a shotgun.

Darrough told police he started running and was shot, and Hunter said Darrough, who is a convicted felon, later admitted that he was armed with a .357 and returned fire, likely resulting in the death of Lee.

After the shooting, Darrough went to the Valero service station at 3000 E. Harding Ave., where he asked an employee to call police, but didn’t mention at that time that he had also fired shots.

Hunter said a police officer who was in the area heard the shots and saw Sims, McAfee and Shelton on the parking lot of the motel. They told him where the shots came from, but the officer was not aware that they had been involved in the shooting and they were allowed to leave.

Darrough was hit by a shotgun blast, Hunter said, and an officer reported seeing small bumps on his shoulder, front and back, and under his left arm. He refused medical treatment at the time, and contacted police later to tell them about his involvement in the incident.

Hunter said after McAfee was identified as a suspect and arrested, he was interviewed in the presence of his father, and admitted being at the motel, but denied having a gun.

Neither Sims or McAfee have adult criminal records, Hunter said.

Wyatt appointed the Public Defender’s Office to represent both Sims and McAfee, and told them to come back to court Nov. 3.

The judge set a $10,000 bond for Darrough and ruled prosecutors had probable cause to charge him with being a felon in possession of a firearm because of a 2003 conviction on drug related charges. Darrough told the court he would hire his own attorney.

Robbery, kidnapping allegations

Sims was also the subject of a second probable cause hearing as Wyatt ruled prosecutors had probable cause to charge Sims and Latara Boyd, 17, with aggravated robbery, kidnapping and theft of property stemming from an incident Sept. 18. Boyd will also be charged as an adult.

Reading from an affidavit from police Detective Shawn Davis, Deputy Prosecutor Cymber Gieringer said police were flagged down by a man at the intersection of Blake Street and the Martha Mitchell Expressway who reported that he had been kidnapped at his home on Lakewood Lane and robbed.

She said the man, Jerry Cobbs, was “not initially forthcoming about the incident but contacted detectives later and gave them more details.”

Gieringer said Cobbs told detectives that he had been involved in a relationship with Sims for about a year, and about a month before the robbery, tried to end the relationship.

Davis reported that Cobbs received a telephone call from Boyd, who demanded money or she would tell Cobbs’ wife after his relationship with Sims.

Gieringer said Cobbs picked up Sims late in the evening on Sept. 17 and took her to his house, and while they were there, three black males waving guns came into the house, forced him to the floor, tied him up and covered his eyes with duct tape, then took computers, jewelry, a cell phone, his wallet and bank card.

She said Cobbs told police the men forced him into his vehicle and they drove to several automatic teller machines where they withdrew cash before forcing the man out of his vehicle behind Dollarway High School.

Several days after the reported robbery, police released a photo of one of the suspects using Cobbs’ bank card at an automatic teller machine and he was identified as Michael Deshun Smith, 19, of Pine Bluff.

Gieringer said Sims and Boyd both gave police several statements, with Sims saying first that she was there when Boyd and the three men came in, and rode with them when they used the ATM machines.

In her second statement, Sims reportedly said she knew Boyd called Cobbs and told him to give them money but he never did, and she and Boyd talked about robbing Cobbs because they knew he had money, Davis said in the affidavit.

Boyd also gave several statements, Gieringer said, first saying she was present but didn’t participate, then said she and Sims discussed robbing Cobbs, and she, Smith and others robbed him.

Wyatt set a $150,000 bond for both Sims and Boyd, and ordered them to have no contact with Cobbs until the case is settled.

Responding to a question from Wyatt, Boyd said she did not have a job, was not in school, and had not graduated.

Anyone with information about Shelton’s whereabouts should contact the Detective Division at 543-5111 or the crime hotline at 543-5110, and all calls will be kept confidential.

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