A local man was sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in the 2019 shooting death of his wife, which he claimed was a drunken accident.
Levar Leron Strickland, 43, who has remained in custody in lieu of a $1 million bond since his arrest on June 22, 2019, was initially charged with second-degree murder for the death that day of Stephanie Malicoat, 40, inside their residence at 315 N. Patterson St., but the charge was later upgraded to first-degree after one of the victim's children provided additional information to Hot Springs police.
Strickland pleaded guilty to the upgraded charge during a Garland County Circuit Court hearing held at the detention center and will have to serve 70% percent, or 21 years, before he is eligible for parole, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Kara Petro told The Sentinel-Record shortly after the hearing Tuesday.
Petro said the victim's mother and children had agreed to the plea and sentence, noting a major concern was the young child having to face Strickland and testify against him in court if they had gone to trial.
She said the child was already traumatized by his mother's death and would have been re-traumatized by having to testify about it in court. "I feel the sentence was appropriate given how traumatic that could have been," she said.
The child was "ready, willing and able" to testify, Petro said, but she thought it was in his best interests not to have to go through that ordeal. She also noted at trial Strickland's attorney would have argued Strickland was "extremely intoxicated" at the time of the incident and that the shooting was accidental.
"Intoxication is not a legal defense in this case, but you never know what a jury might do," Petro said, noting they might have had doubts that it was intentional and found him guilty of second-degree murder and his sentence would have been much less.
Additional felony charges of criminal use of a prohibited weapon and possession of a defaced firearm, stemming from his use of a sawed-off shotgun with the serial number filed off in the shooting of Malicoat, and three counts of endangering the welfare of a minor because children were present at the time of the shooting were withdrawn as part of the plea.
According to the affidavit, on June 22, 2019, shortly before 7:30 p.m., police responded to the North Patterson residence after a 911 caller reported his stepfather, identified as Strickland, had shot his mother and was now lying on top of her refusing to get off. Strickland told his stepson not to call 911 because "he was 911."
When the officers arrived, they found Strickland still on top of Malicoat in the upstairs bedroom and noted she had a gunshot wound to her right side with an exit wound on her left side. She was pronounced deceased at the scene a short time later.
Strickland told officers he accidentally shot her with a sawed-off shotgun, which was located nearby. He was taken to the police department where, after being read his rights, he gave a more detailed statement to Detective Scott Lampinen.
He said he had purchased the shotgun for $50 "awhile back" because they were having issues with a person in the neighborhood. That night, he said he was lying on the bed next to Malicoat while she was watching television. He said he had come into the bedroom and got on the bed trying to "get amorous" with her.
He said he saw the gun and grabbed it and noted the gun shouldn't have been loaded because he was the only one "that messes with it." He said he was kidding around with Malicoat, saying, "Pow, pow, pow," while squeezing the trigger and it went off and struck her.
Lampinen asked Strickland specifically if he had put a shell into the gun at any point and Strickland said, "Hell no. No sir," and kept insisting the gun should not have been loaded.
The shotgun was illegal because the barrel was cut down to just under 12 inches and all the markings and serial numbers had been filed off. It was a 12-gauge shotgun with a single-action hammer trigger, which requires the shooter to pull the hammer back to a locked position before it can be fired, the affidavit states.
There were five juveniles in the home at the time of the shooting, along with one adult witness. On June 23, the five juveniles were each interviewed and it was determined three of the children were in the other upstairs bedroom next to the room where the shooting occurred, approximately 8 feet away.
One juvenile said prior to the shooting Strickland was mad at Malicoat and "throwing her clothes onto the floor." He said he heard Strickland tell Malicoat she should "just go kill herself." He said he went into the bedroom and saw his mother lying on the bed watching television while Strickland was sitting on the edge of the bed "talking to himself" and holding the shotgun.
He said he watched Strickland load the gun and then Strickland told him to go back into the other bedroom. A short time later, he heard a gunshot and ran into the room and saw his mother had been shot.
The other juveniles stated Strickland brandished the shotgun numerous times in their presence and told them he could kill eight people at the same time because the shells he used had eight pellets in them. The shotgun was reportedly loaded with buckshot at the time of the shooting.
The adult witness told police that two weeks prior to the shooting Strickland had threatened to shoot Malicoat during an argument.