An El Dorado man was sentenced to five years in prison last month on charges of second-degree battery and driving while intoxicated stemming from a 2018 incident where he struck the News-Times building with a vehicle.
Kenneth M. Parker, 25, of El Dorado was sentenced at the start of the month to five years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections for second-degree battery and one year in the ADC for violating the DWI Act; the sentences will be served concurrently, or at the same time.
According to court records, in November 2018 at about 2 in the morning, officers from the El Dorado Police Department were dispatched to the intersection of North Madison and East Main regarding a car crash. They found Parker unresponsive in a BMW parked on the street, sweating profusely and still buckled in.
Another man at the scene of the crash said he’d been struck by the BMW when it jumped the curb and traveled along the sidewalk running next to the News-Times building where he had been walking, court records say.
The BMW was discovered to belong to the Billy Wood Honda dealership; the owner of the dealership told police Parker did not have permission to take the vehicle, according to court documents. Surveillance footage from the dealership later showed Parker taking the keys to the BMW when he left work, and returning about an hour later to take the car.
Parker originally pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, which at that time also included property theft between $5,000 and $25,000. In all, Parker could have faced 16 years in prison and a year in jail.
Through a plea agreement, Parker pleaded guilty to the charges of second-degree battery and first-degree DWI, while the theft charge was dismissed. He was entitled to 186 days of pre-trial incarceration credit and will have to pay costs and fees totaling $340.
Parker has since been charged in a separate incident with four counts of delivering a controlled substance, three counts of possession of a controlled substance with the purpose to deliver (all three counts referring to different controlled substances), possession of drug paraphernalia to manufacture methamphetamine or cocaine, maintaining a drug premises and second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor, according to court records. He will appear in court again on those charges Feb. 6.