HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – A 15-year-old already charged in a drive-by shooting at a Hot Springs home now faces adult charges that accuse him of shooting a man who was walking his dog later the same day.
Bradley Graham was charged Tuesday in Garland County Circuit Court with 13 counts, including first-degree unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle. The charge is a Class Y felony punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in prison.
The case began in juvenile court. Circuit Judge Cecilia Dyer ordered it transferred to the court’s criminal division Sept. 18, writing that the alleged offenses are “very serious” and that “protection of society requires prosecution in the Criminal division of the Circuit Court.”
Graham is also charged with three counts of second-degree unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle, first-degree battery, theft of property over $25,000 and theft by receiving over $25,000. Each is a Class B felony punishable by five to 20 years in prison.
He faces two counts of theft of a firearm and one count of theft by receiving of a firearm, which are Class D felonies punishable by up to six years. The remaining counts are misdemeanors: theft of property under $1,000, possession of a handgun by a minor and fleeing on foot.
Garland County dispatchers received a call about a shooting on Lake South Terrace at about 10:20 p.m. Aug. 13, according to a probable cause affidavit by sheriff’s Investigator Gavan Mason. Deputies found a man with a gunshot wound to his right arm. He was taken to CHI St. Vincent for treatment.
Investigators found four spent 9 mm shell casings at the scene, the affidavit said.
The man told investigators he usually walks his dogs through the neighborhood at about 10 p.m. He said he saw a gray Jeep drive around the neighborhood’s front gate and confronted the people inside.
During the argument, the front-seat passenger pulled out a gun, the man told investigators. He said he reached into the Jeep and the passenger shot him. He described the driver and passenger as two young white males, the affidavit said.
Investigators determined the Jeep was a Gladiator that had been reported stolen in Saline County that morning.
Graham was arrested the next day with Lucas Cole Mays, 19. Graham at first told investigators that another juvenile shot the man from the front passenger seat, the affidavit said.
Mays allegedly told investigators the other juvenile was not with them and that Graham fired the shot after the man reached into the passenger window. The other juvenile’s mother told investigators her son was home at about 10 p.m., the affidavit said.
When investigators interviewed Graham again, he allegedly admitted he was in the passenger seat and was the one who shot the man. He said he had brandished a black Smith & Wesson 9 mm handgun during the argument and fired when the man reached into the Jeep, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit said shots continued from the front passenger window as Mays drove away.
Mays has not ben charged in the Lake South Terrace shooting, court records show. He was charged Monday with eight counts tied to the vehicle and gun thefts.
Dyer wrote that the allegations describe a crime spree that lasted two days and put the public at great risk. She cited Graham’s alleged attempt to flee and “the juvenile’s posting of firearms on social media.”
“These actions are willful and extremely violent,” Dyer wrote of the allegations.
The judge found that Graham “was the primary participant in the shooting as well as the other multiple offenses,” though he did not act alone.
Graham has no history of delinquency adjudications, according to the order.
“The Court does not believe that there are any facilities or programs available to rehabilitate the juvenile before his twenty-first birthday,” Dyer wrote.
Dyer found by clear and convincing evidence that the case should be transferred. She also transferred the remaining charges because they arose from the same course of conduct.
The theft counts stem from a string of vehicle break-ins, according to the affidavits.
A home security video recorded at about 12:12 a.m. Aug. 13 on Central Avenue showed two males trying the doors of every vehicle in a driveway before finding a truck unlocked, Mason wrote. “I found a gun,” one of them can be heard saying. The truck’s owner reported a black Smith & Wesson 9 mm handgun stolen.
A 2000 Toyota Land Cruiser valued at $40,000 was taken from the property next door minutes later. A .32-caliber revolver was inside, the affidavit said.
At about 4 p.m. Aug. 14, Cpl. Kevin Hampton was responding to a report of a stolen gas can in the Long Beach Terrace area when he saw the Jeep run a stop sign. It pulled into a mobile home park on Highway 290.
Mays and Graham got on the ground as ordered but then jumped up and ran, Hampton wrote. Both were found in the woods.
A sheriff’s office K-9 named Echo alerted to a fallen tree stump about 15 feet from where the two were caught. Deputies found a Springfield Armory Hellcat pistol in a pink holster and a Sig Sauer 9 mm pistol with no magazine. The Sig Sauer had been reported stolen in Saline County, the affidavit said.
The Jeep was valued at $50,000. Investigators who searched it with a warrant found the revolver taken with the Land Cruiser.
Graham allegedly told investigators he knew the Jeep was stolen. He named several stolen firearms and said Mays had stolen them, according to the affidavit.
Graham, Mays and a 14-year-old boy were charged in August with committing a terroristic act, second-degree unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle and first-degree criminal mischief. Prosecutors filed those charges directly in circuit court.
That case stems from a shooting at about 4:08 a.m. Aug. 13 on Plateau Street in Hot Springs, about 18 hours before the Lake South Terrace shooting. Police found bullet holes throughout a house where a woman and five children were inside. No injuries were reported.
Graham allegedly admitted firing a .22-caliber pistol and said he had “beef” with a teen who lived at the home, according to a police affidavit in that case.
Graham pleaded not guilty Aug. 26, court records show. Circuit Judge Ralph Ohm set his bond at $75,000 and appointed a public defender. A disposition hearing is scheduled for Nov. 16.
An attorney for the 14-year-old asked Sept. 25 to have his case moved to juvenile court, court records show.
Ohm issued an arrest warrant Tuesday in the new case and set bond at $250,000. The warrant lists Graham as already in jail.
No hearing date or defense attorney was listed in the new case Tuesday.
Prosecuting Attorney Michelle Lawrence filed the charges. The case is assigned to Ohm.
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