Bail set at $150,000 for suspect in killing

A Pulaski County circuit judge set bail at $150,000 Wednesday for a North Little Rock teenager accused of killing a 15-year-old friend, citing the absence of hard evidence against the 19-year-old.

Charged with capital murder, Timothy Owen “Lil Tim Tim” Harper Jr. has been held without bail since his April 18 arrest, 10 days after Austin Taylor Addie was reported missing by his grandmother and six days after the boy’s body was found in a field. He had been shot five times, North Little Rock detective Gary Jones testified Wednesday.

Deputy prosecutor Hugh Finkelstein asked Judge Leon Johnson to continue to keep Harper jailed without bail because of the victim’s age and the brutal nature of his killing. Police have statements from at least five witnesses who say Harper talked about having killed the boy, he told the judge.

Defense attorney Lott Rolfe asked the judge to set bail because the case is purely circumstantial, built on the statements of witnesses who claim Harper made incriminating statements to them, including one witness who was a cellmate of Harper’s. He said authorities have no eyewitness to the killing, have not found the gun used to kill Addie, and Harper has denied any role in the boy’s death. Rolfe also asked Johnson to consider that Harper has no felony convictions.

According to Jones’ testimony, Addie left his grandmother’s home April 7, saying that he was going to his “homeboy’s house” at 509 Live Oak Drive, a residence “just around the corner” from the home. The woman reported him missing the next day. Four days later, a man riding a four-wheeler found Addie’s remains in a Campbell Road field, and an autopsy showed he had been shot several times. That same day, police went to the Live Oak home, which is Harper’s residence.

Harper told police that Addie had been at his home and asked for a cigarillo, the de- tective told the judge. Harper said he told Addie they could not hang out any more because Harper’s mother was concerned about their age difference, the detective testified.

One witness contacted during the investigation told police that Harper had complained to him that a boy was “talking” and trying to send him to prison, but that he told the witness he had “handled his business” while making a shooting motion with his hand, the detective said.

Another witness said Harper described persuading the boy to go into the woods — using the pretext he was going to show Addie a stolen “scooter” that they could ride — where he smoked marijuana with the victim to get him high, then shot him, according to the testimony. And an inmate who had shared a jail cell with Harper after his arrest contacted detectives and reported Harper had told him he had shot a boy five times after getting the victim to go with him into the woods to see a motorcycle.

Harper said he subsequently sold the pistol, the inmate told police. Another witness said Addie told her that “Little Tim” was going to shoot him in the head because he had been telling people that they had been breaking into houses, the detective told the judge, confirming that Addie had been suspected of burglaries in the area. Addie had also told others that a group of men were out to get him, but police couldn’t confirm that anyone was, the detective said.

Harper has no prior felonies, but court files show he was arrested on a felony theft-by-receiving charge in August 2011, about five weeks before his 18th birthday, with a neighbor, 23-year-old Jamark Rasha McKinney, by Pulaski County sheriff ’s deputies. The deputies found them removing tires from a stolen car at the home of 50-year-old Gregory Dick Turnage at 4302 Dick Jeter Road. The charge against Harper was dropped while McKinney and Turnage pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft-by-receiving charges, reduced from felony counts.