Just before dawn on May 8, 2015, Jonathan Brown, 33, a Black/African American male, was found shot inside a small house off the 2300 block of South Valentine Street in Little Rock after a neighbor reported that someone had come to their door saying a person at another residence had been shot. Officers arrived around 5:30 a.m. and found him mortally wounded; he died at the scene.
Early reports did not immediately release his name as detectives began piecing together what had happened in the quiet pre-work hours of that Friday morning.
As the investigation unfolded, witnesses described a grim scene inside the home. Testimony later established that several people had slept there overnight and that an argument in the living room preceded the gunfire. At trial, one witness recounted seeing a man step into the room and fire multiple rounds, leave, then return and fire again; the medical examiner would later testify that Brown suffered multiple gunshot wounds, including to the chest, and that all recovered bullets and casings were. 45 caliber from the same unrecovered firearm.
By the evening of May 8, Little Rock police had publicly identified a suspect, Ronnie R. Collins, and announced that he was wanted for first-degree murder in Brown’s killing. Within weeks, prosecutors formally charged Collins; on June 17, 2015, he was arraigned on a count of premeditated and deliberated capital murder with a firearm enhancement. A Pulaski County jury convicted him in October 2017, and the court sentenced him to life in prison; the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the conviction on April 18, 2019. No additional suspects were identified in connection with Brown’s death.
