By Steve Good

Four people charged with capital murder in the June 2 death of Damien Rachard Jones, 21, of Malvern, appeared before Seventh Judicial District Circuit Judge Phillip Shirron at Malvern on Wednesday at a courthouse and in a courtroom bristling with enhanced security.

Shirron heard pleas from Shkendra Braxton, Timothy Laplez Davis and Brian M. Clay, but ordered Anthony Bell, Jr., to appear again on July 16 after Bell indicated his family was working to hire a criminal defense attorney to represent him.

Braxton, 21, of Magnolia, entered a plea of “not guilty” to the charge of one count of capital murder. Shirron appointed Malvern attorney Phyllis Lemons to represent Braxton and ordered Braxton to appear in circuit court again on Sept. 24. Shirron declined to set a bond for Braxton at the arraignment but told Lemons that he would examine bond at a separate hearing if Lemons requested it.

Shirron appointed attorney Gregory Crain of Malvern to represent Davis, 32, who entered a plea of “not guilty” to a charge of capital murder. Shirron ordered Davis to appear again on Sept. 24. He also declined to set a release bond for Davis at the proceeding but advised Crain he could request a hearing on the matter. Davis uses both Malvern and North Little Rock addresses.

Shirron appointed Malvern attorney Bob Frazier to represent Clay. Clay, 29, of Little Rock, entered a plea of “not guilty” to a charge of capital murder. 

Shirron declined to reduce Clay’s bond from $250,000 to a lesser amount, but told Frazier that he would allow him to address lowering the bond in a separate hearing.

The judge told each defendant in turn that he would also be requesting a second attorney for each one of them from the state public defender’s office since they are charged in a case where they could be executed. Shirron told the three that even though their appointed attorneys are experienced and have tried death-penalty cases, criminal procedure in the state requires two public defenders represent each person charged with a capital crime.

Shirron did not enter a plea from Bell, who told the judge that his family intends to hire a criminal defense attorney to represent him. Shirron continued Bell’s case and ordered Bell, 20, of Maumelle, to appear again on July 16 with counsel of his choice. He also kept Bell’s bond set at $250,000.

Following the county’s courthouse security plan for “high-profile trials,” law enforcement officers from the Hot Spring County Sheriff’s Department, Malvern Police Department and Rockport Police Department provided enhanced security for the court session. 

That plan calls for increasing the number of officers assigned to protect defendants, the courthouse and courtroom in cases where there are threats of violence directed at a defendant or a potential for violence among factions of observers. 

The plan also calls for limiting access to the courtroom to one set of doors, where officers subject anyone entering the courtroom to a metal detector screening for weapons.

More than 60 people packed the seats in the courtroom, many of them members of the victim’s and defendants’ families.

During the time the defendants were in the courtroom, more than a dozen officers in uniform and in plain clothes lined the courtroom walls. 

Lawmen armed with rifles, some dressed in tactical gear, guarded the rear parking lot and other entrances to the courthouse. 

Two officers screened each person who entered the courtroom using hand-held metal detectors and hand-checked contents of purses and briefcases carried by those who entered.

Two of the defendants wore ballistic vests outside their prisoner uniforms during transport to Malvern and during the time they were in the courtroom.

The four are being held in separate jails.