LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A 21-year-old Little Rock man was formally charged Wednesday with capital murder in the August shooting death of a 23-year-old man on J.E. Davis Drive, seven weeks after he posted a $5,000 bond in a pending machine gun case and while he was on probation for a 2023 drug arrest, court records show.
Omarion Vashon Hatchett is accused of killing Jazeven Gregory on Aug. 25, according to a criminal information filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court by the office of Prosecuting Attorney Will Jones. The case is assigned to Circuit Judge Andrew Gill. Hatchett is being held without bond. Capital murder is punishable by death or life in prison without parole.
Little Rock police officers were called to 3400 J.E. Davis Drive in southwest Little Rock about 3:50 p.m. Aug. 25 and found Gregory, of Little Rock, lying in the street with multiple gunshot wounds, according to a police department news release. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Hatchett was arrested two days later, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
Hatchett pleaded not guilty to the capital murder charge in Little Rock District Court on Aug. 28, where a judge ordered him held without bond and appointed a public defender, according to the district court docket. Police have not said publicly what led them to Hatchett.
Court records show Hatchett had two other felony cases pending before Circuit Judge Karen Whatley at the time of the shooting.
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On April 24, he was arrested on charges of violating the Arkansas Uniform Machine Gun Act, theft by receiving property worth between $5,000 and $25,000, possession of a firearm by certain persons, possession of a defaced firearm, leaving the scene of a crash that caused at least $10,000 in property damage and misdemeanor marijuana possession, according to a criminal information filed June 15.
His bond in that case was initially set at $50,000. At his June 29 arraignment, where he pleaded not guilty and was appointed a public defender, the bond was reduced to $5,000, according to the court docket. A bail bond company posted it July 8, 48 days before Gregory was killed.
At the time of the April arrest, Hatchett was already on probation. He had been arrested July 4, 2023, on charges of simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms, third-degree escape and possession of more than 4 ounces of marijuana with the purpose to deliver. On Feb. 26, 2024, prosecutors dropped the gun and escape counts and he pleaded guilty to the marijuana charge, according to the sentencing order.
Whatley sentenced him to five years of probation under Act 346, the state’s first-offender law, which allows a judge to defer a finding of guilt and later expunge the record if the defendant completes probation. He was also fined $500, ordered to perform 35 hours of community service and given credit for 85 days in jail.
The Arkansas Division of Community Correction listed Hatchett among seven probationers from Whatley’s division who had absconded in an April 10 filing, and the judge ordered a failure-to-comply warrant. He was arrested on that warrant April 28, four days after the gun arrest, and released the same day after being “admonished to comply with probation,” according to a judge’s note on the docket.
Prosecutors petitioned July 15 to revoke his probation, citing the April gun case and $210 in unpaid supervision fees. The petition lists the new offenses as theft by receiving, violating the Uniform Machine Gun Act, “perpetrating a crime with a machine gun,” theft of property and fleeing.
On Sept. 18, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Elizabeth Kanopsic filed an amended petition adding that Hatchett “has also committed a new felony offense of Capital Murder on or about August 25, 2026, in Pulaski County.”
Hatchett denied the revocation allegations at a Sept. 28 hearing. A revocation hearing and a status hearing in the gun case are both set for 8:30 a.m. Oct. 28 before Whatley. No court date has been set in the capital murder case.
The charges are accusations, and Hatchett is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
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