Gang Related? You decide- From the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

1 man connects 3 arrested in killings
Cases involve self-admitted gang leader

BY JIM BROOKS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Three men arrested since Friday on murder charges by Little Rock police all have ties to a self-admitted gang leader in southwest Little Rock — Antoine Baker, a 26-year-old parolee who recently appeared in federal court on weapons charges, police said.

The three men — Willie Davis, Don McTyer and Jimmy Smith — are accused in three separate killings, with Davis accused in two of them, including the 2002 slaying of a man who was to be a witness against Baker in an aggravated robbery trial. The charges against Baker were dropped after the man’s death.

At a detention hearing last week in Little Rock, an FBI agent testified that after a federal SWAT team arrested Baker on Jan. 13, he said he was “governor of the Gangster Disciples,” a gang involved in the drug trade in southwest Little Rock.

Baker is in federal detention in Tennessee after his arrest on federal charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Pulaski County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Barbara Mariani, who prosecutes gang cases, said getting Baker off the streets of southwest Little Rock makes the city safer.

In warrant documents for all three men arrested since Friday, Baker’s name is prominently mentioned.

Little Rock police are investigating his connection to the crimes, but he had not been charged as of Monday afternoon. At the detention hearing last week, a police detective told a federal magistrate that he was preparing warrants accusing Baker in the three slayings.

Little Rock police acknowledge the presence of street gangs in the capital city, but the department prefers to use the term “drug-related” because, authorities say, that phrase more closely reflects the true motivation behind the offenses. “We used to say gang-related, which was really about a tussle over territory, but now most of those turf issues have been worked out,” police spokesman Sgt. Terry Hastings said. “We don’t have people being shot because of the colors they’re wearing any more — it’s disputes over drug transactions.”

Police started making such distinctions after the height of the gang “turf wars” of the early to mid-90 s. Little Rock hit its record for homicides in 1993, at 76, providing the city with unwanted attention in the form of an HBO documentary, Gang Wars (sic) : Bangin’ in Little Rock.

Now, Hastings said, “Even though the people involved may have gang affiliations, the crime is about the drugs, not the gangs.”

Davis, 21, is charged with two counts of capital murder in the deaths of Jerry Otis in December 2002 and Bryant Caster, 21, in April 2005. He pleaded innocent Saturday in Little Rock District Court and was being held without bail Monday night. Davis also has been called a “person of interest” in the Jan. 11 shooting death of his girlfriend, Lashanya Hinnant, whose body was discovered in her Scott Street apartment, police said.

The 21-year-old woman’s two children with Davis were discovered unharmed inside the apartment. Smith, 32, is charged with one count of first-degree murder in the Nov. 9 shooting death of Corte Beavers and aggravated robbery in the Dec. 28 home-intrusion robbery of Carlos Thurman. He pleaded innocent Monday in Little Rock District Court and was ordered held in lieu of a $250,000 bond.

On Monday, Little Rock police arrested McTyer on a warrant accusing him of capital murder in the Caster slaying. McTyer, whose name also is listed as Don McTyer-Johnson, was being held without bail Monday night in the Pulaski County jail.

According to the affidavit in support of the warrant accusing Davis in the Caster slaying, a witness described the gang component of the crime. “She [the witness] also advised that Caster and McTyer had been into it over gang-related issues,” detective J.C. White wrote in the affidavit. “She believed that Caster had refused to participate in gang activity with McTyer and his friends. She advised that Mc-Tyer and his friends were Gangster Disciples or Folks.”

Several months after Caster’s death, White spoke with a witness, identified as Witness 1 in the affidavit. “Witness 1 advised that they were present at the [Pulaski County jail] when they had a conversation with Antoine Baker about a homicide that occurred on Valley Drive near Old Glory Court,” White wrote, referring to the Caster slaying. “Mr. Baker advised Witness 1 that he and Willie Davis had shot and killed a guy on Valley Drive.”

Police said Otis, 21, of Little Rock was robbed Aug. 5, 2002, by a group of men, one of whom he later identified as Baker. Baker was later arrested on an aggravated robbery warrant in the case. According to the affidavit, a short time after Baker’s cousin Marrio Dednam visited Baker at the jail, Dednam and Davis lured Otis into a car in December 2002 in southwest Little Rock, where he was shot in the head. In October 2003, Dednam was convicted of a capital murder charge in Otis’ death and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Two years later, detectives talked to another witness, whose name was not listed in the affidavit. The witness told investigators that Baker ordered Dednam and Davis to shoot Otis after he received information about Otis’ statement to police from a motion for discovery filed by his attorney in the case. Smith is accused in the Nov. 9 slaying of Beavers, 20, of Little Rock, who was found lying shot in the street. Witnesses told police that Beavers was selling drugs from a trailer in southwest Little Rock when several people went to the residence, two of whom were later identified as Smith and Baker. “Witness 1 advised that a verbal altercation took place between Mr. Beavers and one of the subjects over money,” White wrote. “She advised that she told Mr. Beavers that he needed to leave to avoid any problems.”

Beavers left the trailer and a few minutes later, Baker and Smith left, the affidavit continued. Beavers was shot a short time later. Police talked to another witness whose name was not revealed in the affidavit. The woman told police that she and a friend were traveling through the area when she saw Beavers lying in the street. The woman said she stopped the vehicle and talked to Beavers. “She asked Mr. Beavers who shot him at which time he told her Jimmy Smith and Antoine Baker,” White wrote. “Mr. Beavers further stated that he was dying.”

This story was published Tuesday, January 24, 2006