A 23-year-old Little Rock man was booked into jail on a capital murder charge. He is charged in the death of a woman found stabbed inside a home.
His name is Laquarious Jones. Officers found him in El Dorado, a city in south Arkansas. He was taken into custody without a fight, the 13th Judicial Drug Task Force said in a news release.
The woman who died was Michelle Jones. Police put her age at 41. Little Rock police spokesman Mark Edwards said the two were not related. They only share a last name.
Little Rock police got the call early on Tuesday, August 25. The city police release says officers rolled out at 3:21 a.m. The El Dorado News-Times reported the call came in at about 3:19 a.m.
A man went to the house that morning. He saw that Michelle Jones' car was gone from the driveway, the police release says. He walked inside. He found her dead.
Officers checked the body and sealed off the house. Homicide detectives came. So did the Crime Scene Search Unit. The Pulaski County Coroner took her body to the Arkansas State Crime Lab for an autopsy.
She had been stabbed many times, the task force release says. The city police release puts the house in the department's southwest patrol area.
Two days later, police had a name and a warrant. Finding him was the next problem.
That is where the cameras come in. Investigators used Flock cameras. Those cameras read license plates and record where a car passed. Officers used them, plus help from the community, to chase a car linked to Jones.
The car turned up in El Dorado. That is far south of Little Rock.
"Investigators utilized multiple investigative resources, including Flock License Plate Recognition camera systems and community efforts. Through these investigative tools, officers were able to establish that a vehicle believed to be associated with Jones was located in El Dorado," the task force said in its release.
That Thursday morning, El Dorado police put out a warning. They told people not to walk up to Jones. Do not confront him. Do not try to grab him.
Anyone who saw him was told to move somewhere safe and call 911, or call El Dorado police at 870-881-4810.
The warning did not last long. Later that same morning, August 27, El Dorado police said Jones was in custody, KNOE reported.
Little Rock police worked with investigators in El Dorado and with the 13th Judicial Drug Task Force to find Jones. Jones was served with capital murder warrants that same Thursday. He was booked into the Pulaski County jail. He was being held with no bail.
Capital murder is the top murder charge in Arkansas. Under state law it can mean life in prison with no parole. It can also mean a death sentence.
There is one wrinkle in the records. Most news outlets, working from what police put out, list Michelle Jones as 41 years old. The city of Little Rock's own police release lists her as 43.
A lot is still missing from the public record. Police have not said why she was killed. They have not said if the two knew each other at all. They have not said what happened to her missing car.
Police have also not said what first led them to Jones. They only said cameras and community help led them to a car in El Dorado.
The case is still open. Little Rock police say the investigation is ongoing. Jones has not gone to trial.
For now the facts that are locked down are short and hard. A woman was found dead in the house. A man walked in and found her. A young man was caught two days later, far to the south. And cameras that read license plates helped point officers his way.
A charge is not proof. Everyone is innocent until a court says otherwise.