A 61-year-old Arkansas man with felony convictions stretching back more than 25 years has been charged with felony theft after police say he was one of two men who hid boxes of rifle ammunition in their jackets and walked out of an Atwoods store in April.
James Thomas Walthall was charged Friday in Garland County Circuit Court with theft of property under $1,000, subsequent offense, a Class D felony. The charge carries up to six years in the Arkansas Division of Correction and a fine of up to $10,000.
Prosecuting Attorney Michelle C. Lawrence filed the felony information. A theft under $1,000 is normally a misdemeanor. It becomes a Class D felony when the defendant has a prior theft conviction within the past 10 years.
According to an affidavit by a Hot Springs Police Department officer, the theft happened April 21 at the Atwoods at 2004 Albert Pike Road.
At 9:53 a.m., an unidentified white man got out of a white Dodge Durango, walked to the store’s hunting department and concealed several boxes of ammunition in his jacket. He left the store at 9:57 a.m.
The Durango returned at 1:28 p.m. The same man got out of the front passenger seat, went back to the hunting department, hid more boxes of ammunition in his jacket and got back into the vehicle at 1:33 p.m.
As he was leaving, a second man wearing a black and white jacket got out of the rear passenger door. Police say he also went to the hunting department, selected several boxes of ammunition and concealed them in his jacket.
The store manager tried to stop the second man as he was leaving. The man refused and ran east through the parking lot before getting into the Durango, according to the affidavit.
An inventory found seven boxes of Hornady 7mm Magnum ammunition valued at $391.93, four boxes of Winchester 6.5 Creedmoor valued at $88.76 and two boxes of Hornady 6.5 Creedmoor valued at $75.98 were missing. The total loss was $556.67. The manager could not determine from surveillance footage which boxes each man took.
Four days later, on April 25, Atwoods employees called police to report the Durango was back at the store. It left before officers arrived, but employees provided the license plate number.
About 2 p.m. that day, an HSPD officer stopped the Durango at East Grand Avenue and Grove Street. The driver was identified as Walthall. Police said he matched the surveillance footage of the second suspect, and a white and black jacket matching the one in the video was in the vehicle.
The manager was shown a photograph of Walthall and identified him as the second man, the affidavit states.
The affidavit does not identify the first suspect or say whether he has been charged.
Garland County District Judge Kara Petro signed the arrest warrant June 26. Walthall was arrested July 19 on Albert Pike Road by a Garland County sheriff’s deputy and released the same day on a $2,500 bond posted through Hot Springs Bail Bond Company.
On his bail bond paperwork, Walthall listed himself as disabled and divorced. He indicated he was out on bond in another case and listed a prior address in Bearden. He left the line for prior felony convictions blank.
A long record
Arkansas court records show Walthall has been convicted in at least 14 felony cases in six counties since 1999. Eleven involved theft.
He pleaded guilty to robbery in Ouachita County on June 30, 1999, for an offense committed that February. He received a 60-month sentence.
In November 2007, he was found guilty in two separate Ouachita County cases, one for theft of property and one for felony theft by receiving. A second theft of property count was dismissed. He received a 60-month sentence in each case.
In November 2008, he pleaded guilty to residential burglary in Ouachita County. A robbery count filed in the same case was dismissed. He received another 60-month sentence.
On May 5, 2010, he pleaded guilty in Dallas County to theft of property, a Class B felony, for an offense in December 2009. He received a 60-month sentence.
On Oct. 13, 2011, he entered a negotiated guilty plea in Calhoun County to theft of property, a Class B felony, for an offense that July. He received a 36-month suspended imposition of sentence.
On Aug. 22, 2012, he pleaded guilty in Union County to theft of property for an offense dating to November 2000 and was sentenced to 60 months in the Department of Correction.
On July 23, 2013, he pleaded guilty in Faulkner County to breaking or entering and theft of property between $1,000 and $5,000. He was sentenced to 48 months in the Department of Correction with 12 months suspended.
On Oct. 31, 2018, he entered negotiated guilty pleas in Union County to forgery and theft of property under $1,000. That case was revoked in August 2021. He was sentenced in January 2022 to 36 months in the Department of Correction with a 60-month suspended imposition of sentence.
On Aug. 5, 2021, in Pulaski County, he entered negotiated guilty pleas in two theft cases arising from a North Little Rock handyman job and a Sherwood pickup truck. He was sentenced to three years in the Department of Correction in each case with 407 days of jail credit.
On Nov. 21, 2024, he entered negotiated guilty pleas in two Union County drug cases from April 2024. Each charged possession of methamphetamine or cocaine under 2 grams and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was sentenced to 24 months in each case with 243 days of jail credit.
On Jan. 16, 2025, in Ouachita County, he entered a negotiated guilty plea to theft by receiving between $5,000 and $25,000 for an offense in December 2023. He was sentenced to 24 months in the Department of Correction with 243 days of jail credit.
The Atwoods theft is alleged to have happened about 15 months after that sentence was imposed.
The Pulaski County cases
The Pulaski County convictions are the ones prosecutors cite to make the Atwoods theft a felony. Both cases were resolved Aug. 5, 2021, in a single plea agreement. A third theft case was dismissed as part of the deal.
The first case grew out of a handyman job in North Little Rock. According to a North Little Rock police summary filed with the court, the owner of a rental house on Francis Street hired Walthall in late November 2019 to repair the interior and haul trash out of the basement. She told him not to remove a new washer and dryer or anything else of value.
She later went to the property and saw a truck pulling a trailer out of the driveway with her washer and dryer on it. Walthall was in the truck. When she confronted him, he admitted giving the appliances to an acquaintance in exchange for the acquaintance hauling off the junk, the summary states.
Walthall told a responding officer he had gotten a ride from a man named Trey who drove off with the owner’s air compressor. He said he could not explain where her other missing tools went. Police later found Walthall had pawned her stolen nail gun at a North Little Rock pawn shop on Dec. 11, 2019. The owner identified the nail gun and picked Walthall out of a six-person photo lineup. She put the loss at $2,083.
Walthall was charged with theft of property between $1,000 and $5,000, a Class D felony. Bond was set at $2,500.
The second case came six weeks later in Sherwood. According to a Sherwood police summary, Walthall had been staying with an acquaintance and working for him as a painter because he had nowhere to live. On Jan. 13, 2020, while the man was in Jacksonville, Walthall left in the man’s 2003 Ford F-150 Harley-Davidson edition pickup. A neighbor saw him drive away. The truck was valued at about $7,000 and had about $10,000 worth of painting tools inside. The owner said he never gave Walthall permission to use it.
Prosecutors charged Walthall with theft of property between $5,000 and $25,000, a Class C felony. Under the plea agreement, it was reduced to a Class D felony.
He was sentenced to 36 months in the Department of Correction in each case, to run concurrently, with 407 days of jail credit. The sentencing order lists a criminal history score of 4 and a presumptive range of 18 to 36 months. The sentence was at the top of that range.
The felony information filed Friday relies on the Pulaski County theft conviction to elevate the new charge to a felony. The information lists that conviction as Aug. 5, 2020. Court records and the arrest affidavit show the pleas were entered Aug. 5, 2021. Either date falls within the 10-year window.
The case is 26CR-26-740 in Garland County Circuit Court.
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