The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed the capital murder conviction and prison sentence of a woman accused in the shooting death of a man in 2020.
Following a jury trial in 2023, Circuit Judge Rob Wyatt sentenced Leashebia Davis to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The jury also found that Davis used a firearm to commit the crime but because of the mandatory life sentence, no additional sentence was imposed.
Davis had been charged in the death of Elvis Kendal, whose body was found on the ground near his vehicle on May 6, 2020, and who was taken to a hospital where he died.
Davis was identified as a suspect within two days of the death, and she was located in a vehicle with another woman. A handgun was found in a bag in the vehicle and at trial, a firearm and toolmark examiner from the state crime lab testified that four shell casings found at the scene and three bullets recovered from Kendal’s body had been fired from the handgun found in the bag.
Video from a nearby convenience store showed a person police said was Davis leaning out the window of a Jeep firing shots at Kendal’s vehicle.
In her appeal, Davis contended that there was insufficient evidence to prove that she was the one firing the shots but the supreme court disagreed.
Davis is serving her sentence at the McPherson Unit at Newport.
