By Ray King
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday said Jefferson County Circuit Judge Jodi Raines Dennis was correct when she denied the petition of a prison inmate who alleged that his prison sentence of life does not meet the standards of an illegal sentence.
Serandon Starling, 31, is currently incarcerated at Tucker Prison after he was convicted in 2014 of first-degree murder and committing a terroristic act in Miller County. He was also sentenced to 180 additional months for using a firearm in the commission of the crime.
Starling fired two shots at a car occupied by the victim with one of those shots hitting the car and the second the victim.
In his appeal, Starling alleged that his convictions for first-degree murder and Class Y terroristic threatening are based on the same element and same actions, which included firing the single bullet that killed the victim. He argued that the conviction and lie sentence for terroristic act should be set aside because it represented a conviction for the same action for which he was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder.
Writing for the Supreme Court, Associate Justice Karen Baker said under state law, terroristic act is a Class B felony but becomes a Class Y felony if, with the purpose of causing physical injury to another person causes physical injury or death.
Baker said Starling’s contention that the single act of firing the shot represents a single offense is wrong. Two separate offenses were committed, the murder itself, and the terrorist act that resulted in the death, which requires proof not required by the first-degree murder statute.
