Man gets 17 years for robbing grandparents
A Garland County Circuit Court jury sentenced a Hot Springs man to 17 years in prison Wednesday after a one-day trial for his part in the armed robbery of his grandparents last year.
Christopher Brady Parker, 22, who lists a Thornton Ferry Road address, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one felony count of aggravated robbery, while additional felony charges of aggravated residential burglary, a second count of aggravated robbery and theft of property more than $1,000 were withdrawn.
“I don’t feel like we were giving up anything (by withdrawing the other charges),” Chief Deputy Prosecutor Joe Graham said Thursday, noting the jury had the option of sentencing Parker to up to life in prison on the remaining count.
The five-man, seven-woman jury deliberated for about one hour and 45 minutes before recommending the 17-year sentence. Graham noted they had a technical issue during the trial and were unable to show jurors a 35-minute video of Parker’s statement to Garland County sheriff’s investigators following his arrest, but gave it to them to watch in the jury room
“which would have taken up some time” during their deliberations.
One of Parker’s accomplices, Asher Chance White, 22, had pleaded guilty in circuit court April 12 this year to one count of aggravated robbery for his part in the incident and a jury sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
The case against a third alleged accomplice, who was 17 at the time, is still pending. Graham said the juvenile’s attorney filed a motion to have the case transferred to juvenile court, which was denied, but the ruling was appealed and they are still awaiting a decision in the case.
The Sentinel-Record follows The Associated Press privacy policies and does not publish the names of juvenile offenders unless they are charged as adults.
In Parker’s original statement to investigators after his arrest, he said he and White and the juvenile were smoking meth on the day of the robbery on April 18, 2016. White and the juvenile “started talking about hitting a lick or robbing someone,” Graham said, and Parker suggested robbing his grandparents.
Graham said Parker told them where his grandparents lived on Highway 290 and that they had money and guns in their home. “It was his idea,” Graham said, but noted Parker claimed he didn’t think his grandparents would be home.
“He admitted he drove his vehicle and dropped the others off at an isolated point up the road. He said he told them to knock and if no one was home to break in. If they were home, they should just leave,” he said.
White testified at Parker’s trial and Graham said his testimony was different from what he had said at his own trial. “He gave a lot of excuses for (Parker),” he said. “Previously he said he just wanted to go home and (Parker) was the one pushing for it.” He noted Parker supposedly told them “‘if you need to tie them both up on the floor, just do it.’”
Testifying Wednesday, Graham said White “told a different story” and claimed while Parker had initially suggested robbing his grandparents, he was later “hesitant” and “tried to talk them out of it. (White) made it sound like it was all his idea and that Parker had left them and drove off and only came back to get them after they called him.”
Graham speculated since White was already sentenced and “couldn’t be given any more time,” that he was trying to help Parker out. “When it was his future on the line, he was saying something entirely different.”
Graham said Parker’s attorney, Tamra Barrett, had argued that Parker never went into the house and didn’t have a gun and that it was White and the juvenile who actually committed the robbery.
Graham said he argued “none of this would have happened if (Parker) hadn’t told them about his grandparents. They didn’t know them or where they lived or about the money and guns. They never would have gone there in the first place.”
He noted the victims were in their mid-80s and both disabled and that Parker “knew their age and knew their physical condition. He was more responsible for what happened than anyone else involved in the case.”
According to sheriff’s reports and the affidavits, on April
18, 2016, the female victim, 84, stated that at 3:10 p.m. two unknown white males wearing dark hoodies knocked at the door of their home and her husband, 85, opened it “just enough to speak through,” but the two suspects forced their way in, knocking him to the floor.
The woman ran to a bedroom to retrieve her phone, but was also pushed down to the floor by both suspects. One suspect was armed with a handgun. The suspects took a two revolvers, an undisclosed amount of cash and a wallet containing debit cards.
Sheriff ’s investigators, Arkansas State Police and LifeNet responded to the scene. The couple were transported to CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs with minor injuries.
On April 25, 2016, a witness reported seeing a white SUV traveling “faster than normal” on Harmony Grove Road the day of the robbery and gave a description of the driver.
Surveillance video from a nearby business showed a white SUV turn onto Harmony Grove, which runs parallel to Highway
290 and “provided a wooded area for access” to the victims’ residence. The SUV, later identified as a Ford Expedition, turned off Rockport Lane onto Harmony Grove. Investigators later located the vehicle in Hot Springs Village and determined it was registered to Parker.
On June 28, the juvenile suspect was interviewed and allegedly admitted he and White entered the residence, took the handguns and fled to a white Ford Expedition where Parker was waiting.
Parker was arrested June
30, 2016, and initially held on
$150,000 bond. After a hearing on Feb. 16, 2017, the bond was reduced to $50,000 and he was later released. Parker will be given credit for time served, but will have to serve 70 percent of his sentence or more than 11 years before he is eligible for parole.