Felony Friday: 2-year-old hurt by brick flung through window

This is a roundup of felony charges filed Aug. 28 through Sept. 12, 2025, by the Clark County Prosecutor’s Office. Some defendants may also have misdemeanor charges against them, but most are not included here. The following names and charges, which are contained within public documents, are gathered from online court records available through ARCourts. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Here’s a rundown of felony cases filed in the past two weeks:

2-year-old hurt by brick flung through window

A Jacksonville man faces felony charges after he allegedly hurled a brick through his ex’s window, striking his own child in the head.

Threats to do so reportedly started July 26, when the ex’s new companion told Arkadelphia police that Zachary David Brinson had made phone calls and threatened to throw a rock through his window. Four days later, Brinson allegedly delivered on his threats, as police responded to a 911 call to a residence at the 1000 block of Pine Street, where a woman reported a large brick had been thrown through the bedroom window, striking her toddler in the back of the head. Officers located a brick on the bed and observed that the child had a laceration on its scalp and dried blood down its back.

Five minutes after police arrived Brinson, 45, called the toddler’s mother in hysterics, inquiring what had happened and insisting he wasn’t to blame for throwing the brick, although no one had told him anything about the incident prior to the call.

Later, the mother’s new companion informed police that Brinson had told him he’d be returning to the house with a firearm; police returned to the residence mid-call and overheard Brinson threaten to shoot the companion in his face and chest.

Police then got information that the mother’s vehicle was parked nearby with four slashed tires. Video surveillance from a nearby residence revealed an individual walking through the parking lot to slash the tires, then to the residence where it appeared he threw an object into it. Investigators identified Brinson’s vehicle and obtained video showing footage of Brandon traveling in the area shortly after the incident. Police also obtained information showing Brinson’s cell phone to be in the area at the time of the incident.

Brinson, of Jacksonville, is charged with second-degree domestic battery, criminal mischief and terroristic threatening.

5 prisoners charged in attack on fellow prisoner who suffered broken ribs

A man being held prisoner at the Clark County Detention Center became the target of a group beating around midday Aug. 8.

Five of the seven prisoners named in court records have been charged in connection with the beating of Cornell Mitchell, who was transported to Baptist Health Medical Center-Arkadelphia for treatment to closed fractures of multiple ribs.

Camera footage showed Mitchell was seated at a table inside the jail facility when Kevin Mitchell stood over and pushed him, prompting a fight that footage showed to include Garrian Allison, Juquavion Gulley, Camron Giles, Isaiah Means, Nicholas Plyler and Markeith Buckley. The group was seen striking Cornell Mitchell multiple times with their fists before he was taken to the floor and repeatedly punched and kicked.

With the exception of Gulley and Giles, all inmates named in the beating have been charged with second-degree battery and I’m pairing the operation of a vital public facility, a misdemeanor.

Man jailed for beating pregnant woman

Charles Leon Smith II is accused in a July 25 beating of a woman carrying his unborn child.

Smith, 22, was arrested after a Thompson Road woman told Arkadelphia police that he had kicked in her door and struck her in the face with a closed fist. Police observed a bleeding laceration on the woman’s forehead, as well as a bloodied nose.

The victim said she had cut ties with Smith after learning that he had impregnated another woman.

Smith was later located at Millcreek Apartments and taken into custody. He’s being charged with felony third-degree domestic battering and residential burglary.

Smith listed employment with ADHC, an acronym commonly used for the Arkadelphia Human Development Center.

Man accused of beating juvenile male

A Camden man is charged in connection with choking an Arkadelphia juvenile and throwing him down stairs.

Justin Lavon Johnson, 35, became the target of a Clark County Sheriff’s Office investigation when a school resource officer observed injuries to a student’s face on the first day back to school.

The student relayed that Johnson had grabbed him by the throat, choked him, knocked him down stairs and punched him several times in the face on Aug. 4, a little over a week before the summer break came to a close.

The victim identified Johnson as a relative who resided with his immediate family in Arkadelphia.

Johnson is charged with second-degree domestic battery.

Felon found with firearm at fishing hole

An Arkadelphia man with a rap sheet that includes aggravated robbery was reportedly caught with a firearm.

Montego Ramon McClure, 33, was arrested Aug. 10. A Clark County deputy sheriff was patrolling the Clear Lake public fishing area off of Highway 51 when, at about 2:04 a.m., he drove up on a parked SUV with three men standing outside it listening to loud music. 

The deputy caught a whiff of booze emitting from the trio, and running McClure’s driver license through a criminal database, learned that he was a felon, having been convicted in 2009 for aggravated robbery. Asked if there was anything in the vehicle that shouldn’t be there, McClure confessed there was a .22 rifle. The firearm was located and seized as evidence, and McClure was taken to the county jail.

McClure is being charged with possession of firearms by a certain person.

911 hangup prompts welfare check, arrest of man accused of strangling woman

Dispatchers received a 911 hangup call on Aug. 4, and called the number back to ask if it had been a mistake. “Something like that,” the woman on the other line replied. A deputy went to check on the residence and knocked at the door, overhearing what sounded like a domestic disturbance. A second knock at the door was answered by a male and female.

With another deputy arriving, the officers questioned both parties individually, discovering that 39-year-old Chad Taurean Dixon had allegedly pushed the woman to the floor and grabbed her by the throat. The female fought Dixon off once, then he grabbed her by the throat again and lifted her off the ground, according to the victim’s account. She showed police markings consistent with her story, adding that she was able to free herself to call 911.

Dixon was arrested at the scene and taken to jail. He has since been formally charged with aggravated assault on a family or household member.

Sex offender fails to meet registration requirements

A registered sex offender in Gurdon was caught residing at a Prescott residence.

Probation and Parole agents attempted to pay John Thomas Prince a visit at his registered address, learning from the person who answered the door that Prince, a Level 3 offender, hadn’t been there for several days. A followup visit a week later by a Clark County Sheriff’s Office sex crimes investigator was also unsuccessful. The investigator located Prince, 57, at a home in Prescott where he had been staying but hadn’t reported a change of address.

Prince faces 3-10 years in prison if convicted of the new offense.

Work truck with swapped engine reported stolen

An Arkadelphia man is accused of stealing a truck and attempting to rid the vehicle of its identification number.

Robert Allen McWhirter, 49, now a former employee of Noe Moreno, had been in possession of a 1999 Dodge Ram 2500 work truck. The vehicle motor was bad so Moreno bought a used truck, and McWhirter exchanged the motors in the two vehicles.

McWhirter was supposed to buy the truck from Moreno but never made any payments. Payments still weren’t made after McWhirter was no longer employed by Moreno, who gave McWhirter an Aug. 2 deadline to return the vehicle. The truck still not returned, Moreno reported it stolen on Aug. 4.

Henderson State University police located the vehicle in a parking lot at 12th and Richardson streets on Aug. 6. The VIN on the dash had been removed from the vehicle. The officer who located the stolen truck noted that he had seen its operator days before and had checked on him because it appeared the truck had been broken down. The campus officer identified McWhirter as the driver from a provided photograph.

Once Moreno had taken possession of the vehicle he discovered that a large amount of sugar had been put into the fuel opening and filled with an unknown liquid.

McWhirter is charged with theft of property and altering or changing engine or other numbers. 

Traffic stop for high-beams results in felony drug arrest

A Gurdon woman was arrested July 5 during a traffic stop in Arkadelphia. Latalia Montgomery, 31, failed to dim her headlights for oncoming traffic, including a Clark County deputy who attempted to make a traffic stop.

Montgomery reportedly sped up and drove for several blocks, making several turns before eventually coming to a stop on South Peake Street. Criminal information notes that a male passenger fled the car into the woods; there is no other mention in the affidavit of the fleeing passenger.

Montgomery, however, stayed in the car and gave police consent to search the vehicle. They found two pills in the center console that Montgomery identified as Ecstasy; however, a field test indicated the substance was instead methamphetamine, commonly sold as Ecstasy.

Montgomery is being charged with possession of a controlled substance and could face up to six years in prison if convicted.