Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Division 4 Judge Robin Carroll oversaw a lengthy criminal docket on Tuesday, April 20. The court session was conducted on the virtual meeting platform Zoom.
Several local residents agreed to plea arrangements in successive hearings.
Damorrian Swift, 19 of Smackover, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault on a family/household member.
Swift was sentenced to five years of probation along with court costs and fees, anger management classes and to have no contact with the victim.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Swift was arrested on July 16, 2020 after choking the victim in the case “to the point she could not breathe,” letting go, and proceeding to “[choke] her two more times…she had to kick his hand off of her neck.”
Judas Bruins, 22, appeared before the court to accept a plea agreement on a range of charges, including seven counts of breaking and entering a vehicle; two counts of theft of property, less than $1,000; theft of property greater than $1,000, less than $5,000; and four counts of theft by receiving, firearm less than $2,500.
Bruins’ guilty plea in case 20-93, theft by receiving a firearm valued less than $2,500, resulted in a sentence of 10 years probation along with court costs and fees.
Court records indicate Bruins also accepted plea agreements in case 20-99, pleading guilty to theft by receiving, firearm; and, in case 20-94, pleading guilty to four of the breaking and entering counts and one count of theft of property, resulting in additional concurrent 10 year probation sentences and additional court costs. The remaining charges were not prosecuted.
In case 20-94, the affidavit for warrant of arrest states that Bruins was arrested with two accomplices allegedly breaking and entering vehicles in Camden. Smackover Police Department then traveled to Camden and interviewed Bruins concerning ten vehicle break-in reports the department fielded on October 24, 2019.
After the interview, Smackover PD Chief Michael Fife received a search warrant for Bruins’ residence and recovered a number of the reported-stolen weapons, according to court records.
Dallas Settles, 20, of El Dorado, pleaded guilty to residential burglary and theft of property.
Settles was sentenced to five years of probation, 40 hours of community service, fees and unspecified restitution.
According to court documents, Settles was arrested in November 2020 after turning himself into the Union County Sheriff’s Office in relation to a residential burglary in which “miscellaneous tools… television and other items” were stolen.
Steven Myers, 28, of El Dorado, pleaded guilty to one count of breaking and entering and one count of theft of property, greater than $1,000, less than $5,000.
Myers was sentenced to two years in the Department of Community Corrections.
Myers was arrested on August 14, 2020, according to a probable cause affidavit, after being seen and confronted by a resident while “carrying property in a white household trash can.”
Myers “abandoned the property and ran” when questioned by the resident.
Stolen property from a vehicle break-in reported nearby was recovered in the trash can abandoned by Myers and he, in a police interview, “admitted to being in possession of the abandoned property which contained [the victim’s] property.”
A habitual offender enhancement and an additional charge of possession of drug paraphernalia were not prosecuted. The plea document states that Myers has two prior felonies.
Wilbur Holliman, 51, of Smackover, pleaded guilty to third-degree domestic battery (second offense within 5 years of a previous offense).
Holliman was sentenced to five years of probation along with anger management courses, 40 hours of community service, fees and no contact with the victim.
An affidavit for warrant of arrest states that Holliman and the victim “began arguing, then he started slapping her.”
The reporting officer also observed and later photographed the victim’s injuries.