A local felon on active parole was arrested early Sunday after allegedly assaulting and abducting his former girlfriend and fighting with Hot Springs police.
Jamar Leron Smith, 30, who lists a Pleasant Street address, was taken into custody shortly after 3:30 a.m. and charged with second-degree false imprisonment, third-degree domestic battery and resisting arrest, each a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.
Smith remained in custody Tuesday in lieu of $20,000 bond and a zero bond parole hold and appeared Monday in Garland County District Court.
According to the probable cause affidavit, shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday, officers responded to a residence in the 100 block of Pinewood Street regarding a disturbance and spoke to two witnesses who said they had observed an altercation in their driveway.
They said a man, identified as Smith, had been in an altercation with a woman they only knew by her first name. They said Smith grabbed the woman by her neck and left the area headed east on Albert Pike in a white SUV. The two witnesses declined to give their names to officers because they feared Smith, noting, "He is crazy," and feared for the woman.
The witnesses told police Smith might take the woman to the Top Park Motel, 316 Park Ave., so Officer 1st Class Shawn Stone and Officer Jamie Ugartechea responded to the motel and as they approached the intersection of Park and Whittington avenues they saw the white SUV witnesses had described turning onto Whittington.
Stone stopped the vehicle at Whittington and Woodfin Street and made contact with the driver, identified as Smith, and asked him to get out. As he attempted to detain him, Smith allegedly fled on foot but was quickly apprehended after a brief scuffle. A computer check showed Smith had a warrant for a parole violation.
After arresting Smith, Stone made contact with a female passenger in the SUV who allegedly stated Smith had grabbed her by the neck and "muscled her" into his vehicle. She said he struck her in the face as they were driving to the motel to pick up his girlfriend.
She said when they all left the motel she was "extremely scared" and "had no idea where they were going." She said she believed Smith was going to kill her and would not let her get out. She noted the two of them had a sexual relationship for two months in the past.
Officers noted the woman had a small abrasion on her chin and visible red marks around her neck. She and Smith were both later cleared by LifeNet.
According to court records, Smith pleaded guilty on June 8, 2015, to felony charges of residential burglary and breaking or entering and was sentenced to six years in prison on each count, to run concurrently, and was later paroled.
Local on 10/02/2019