By Ray King
An investigation into the shooting death of a Pine Bluff man on Sept. 3 has resulted in the arrest of a teenager accused of the crime.
Vernon Lee Mccraney III, 18, is accused in the death of Horace Harrington, 69, whose body was found under a carport at 3101 Lilac St., at about 2 p.m. and pronounced dead at the scene of gunshot wounds. He made his first appearance in court Thursday.
Mccraney, was arrested on Tuesday in North Little Rock and brought back to Pine Bluff where he was interviewed by Detective Keith Banks. He told Banks he was not willing to tell who shot Harrington and was not willing to take a polygraph test.
During a court hearing Thursday, Deputy Prosecutor Beth Carson said when officers arrived at the house, they saw a group of people outside and a woman running around yelling “Vernon did it, Vernon shot him.”
Officer Kevin Collins of the Violent Crimes unit reported receiving a call saying that Mccraney was live on social media and the house where the shooting occurred was in the video. Police also pinged Mccraney’s phone and learned that the phone had been in the area at the time of the shooting.
Carson said Mccraney waived his right to an attorney and told Banks that heard on social media “that he shot someone on Lilac Street.” Mccraney said he had been on the campus of UAPB and then at his girlfriend’s house in White Hall at the time.
Banks reported that he contacted the girlfriend who said Mccraney had been with her and said he did not go to school which contradicted his story.
Pine Bluff District Judge John Kearney set a $500,000 bond for Mccraney after ruling prosecutors have probable cause to charge him with first-degree murder. The Public Defender’s Office was appointed to represent Mccraney who was told if he hired his own attorney to let the public defender’s of
