More than three years have passed since Pine Bluff Police Det. Kevin D. Collins was gunned down at the Econo Lodge Motel trying to apprehend a 19-year-old man from the city who was wanted on active felony warrants out of Georgia.
It also took that much time for a verdict to be handed down in the case, one that would please the staff of Prosecuting Attorney Kyle Hunter.
“It’s been a long time getting it resolved,” Hunter said Friday, after KeShone Smith was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Collins on Oct. 5, 2020, and received two sentences totaling 35 years. “I’m glad to get that done for Kevin Collins’ family and also for the community. It’s a very big case in this town that’s gotten a lot of attention. We’re glad to get it tried this week.”
The trial began Monday after a number of discovery motions and other delays. One delay that prolonged the case occurred last September when not enough qualified jurors could be found despite a four-day process. Jury selection lasted just one day this week, given that prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to eliminate the possibility of the death penalty if Smith were to be convicted of capital murder.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“The difference between capital and first-degree is that capital has one extra element, and that’s premeditation and deliberation,” Hunter said. “We had to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt. If you heard the evidence in the case of the closing arguments, [you heard] how the evidence that we put on as to premeditation is that it happened very quickly. The jury obviously felt we hadn’t proven that beyond a reasonable doubt, but they did feel like we proved purposeful killing of Kevin Collins.”
Collins’ family, fellow Pine Bluff police officers including current Chief Denise Richardson, and state troopers who assisted at the scene showed up at the Jefferson County Courthouse supporting those who best loved a fallen man in blue. Even Laurell Hall, whose daughter disappeared just before her high school graduation 30 years ago, and a mother of a state trooper showed their support for Collins’ family, including his parents Charles and Dornetta “Donna” Hobbs.
“It’s every mother’s nightmare,” Dorothy Chapman-Brown said, to lose her child in the line of duty. “That’s why I’ve been here all week, to support her not only as a church member but as a mother of a lawman.”
Deputy prosecutors Karres Manning and Shana Alexander questioned witnesses along with Hunter this week, but it was Manning’s closing argument Thursday that seemingly took much doubt away from jurors that Smith committed a crime rather than acted in self-defense, as his attorney Lee D. Short argued. (Smith did not testify.)
Smith’s desperation, Manning argued, led to his shooting and killing Collins.
“He fled from Georgia to Arkansas while there was an arrest warrant for him,” Manning said Thursday, adding the warrant was issued June 18, 2020, more than three months before Collins’ murder. “The police in Georgia sent two guys to Arkansas to locate the defendant. He knew they were looking for him.”
In one of his statements to police, Manning noted, Smith acknowledged that police from Georgia and Arkansas were looking for him the whole time.
The closing argument was very crucial, Manning told reporters Friday.
“This was a very difficult case, there being some reluctant witnesses who were very inconsistent, so being able to bring to the forelight some of the more convincing evidence in this case weighed favorably for us,” Manning said. “The jury considered that and were able to convict on that.”
Hunter added that lots of contradictory evidence was presented during the trial. He and his prosecution team argued Smith committed a violent crime when he took a gun and fired at Collins knowing he was there to arrest him, while Short and witnesses said the police struck Kirel Young, one of the men in the vehicle where Smith retreated, and in effect set off the shootout.
Jurors also had to consider whether the paths of the bullets that wounded Collins were consistent with those of someone who tried to retreat from being hit. Collins collapsed near a police-issued vehicle and died at a local hospital.
“I’m proud of this jury, very thankful for this jury that was willing to weigh all of that, to look through it to find the truth in the midst of that evidence,” Hunter said. “We’re happy with that verdict. We’re glad to get it, and we thank the jury for that verdict of first-degree murder. And the jury that has to make those kinds of decisions had to make a decision about punishment. You have to respect their decision about punishment. It’s a substantial sentence, and we’re happy to get that.”
In light of the high profile of a murder involving a respected police officer, Hunter was asked whether the trial defined his time in office. He joined the prosecution staff under Stevan Dalrymple in 1999 and was elected prosecuting attorney in 2011. Manning has been on the staff since 2000.
“Anytime you have a case that involves a loss of life, they’re all a top priority in our office,” Hunter said. “He was a police officer, meaning we knew him maybe better than we know most victims in a case. The community was maybe more aware and it got more attention. So, because of that, it was an important case. A lot of work went into trying to do it right.”