A state trooper's instincts, a mother's persistence, and a year-long investigation into the events surrounding the death of a Little Rock man from injuries sustained in a Nov. 28, 2008, one-car accident on Interstate 30 have led to a second Little Rock man pleading “no contest” to a charge of negligent homicide and being sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Anthony Wayne Gunter, 29, of Little Rock, entered the negotiated pleading of “no contest” to a single felony charge of negligent homicide on Jan. 14 before Eighth Judicial District-North Circuit Judge Duncan Culpepper. Gunter was sentenced by Culpepper to 10 years imprisonment with five years suspended, finding that Gunter was “negligently operating a vehicle while intoxicated and caused the death of another person.”
According to the initial Arkansas State Police traffic investigation, Lance Collins, 25, of Little Rock, formerly of Spring Hill, and Gunter, then 27, were traveling from Little Rock to the Hope area on I-30 at about 11:10 p.m. to visit family on the night of Nov. 28, 2008, when the car they were traveling in went out of control, spun about, it's passenger side hitting a guardrail on the south shoulder of the roadway, then spinning clockwise and rolling backward in a southerly direction into the highway median.
The original investigation by ASP Trooper Jacob Dunn determined that the 1995 Honda Accord came to a stop facing west in the middle of the median, where the driver attempted to drive westerly inside the median, driving the car into a ditch filled with mud and water, which caused it to become immobilized.
An investigative summary states that Dunn arrived at the scene about 11:36 p.m., and observed Gunter standing in front of the car and Collins face down on the ground on the passenger side. Dunn checked Collins' vital signs and called for EMS, but EMS personnel were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead at 12:26 a.m. In the course of the initial investigation, Dunn was told by Gunter that, after the accident, both men got out of the car and “walked around in the median where Lance fell face down.”
“According to the Hempstead County Coroner's report, the suspected cause of death was a broken neck due to a motor vehicle accident,” Eighth Judicial District-North Deputy Prosecutor Christi McQueen said.
Initially, Gunter denied having been the driver of the car, according to McQueen.
“Gunter advised authorities that Collins was the driver of the vehicle at the time of the collision,” she said. “Due to uncertainty concerning who was in actual operation of the vehicle at the time of the collision, additional investigation was conducted with the assistance of the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division.”
On Nov. 29, ASP Investigator Ocie Rateliff was asked to assist Dunn in determining who was the driver of the vehicle. On that same day, Gunter agreed to undergo a blood alcohol test, and results later showed his blood alcohol content to be 0.14 percent, or .06 percent over the legal limit, according to the affidavit Rateliff later filed in circuit court in connection with the negligent homicide charge.
Rateliff interviewed Gunter at ASP troop headquarters in Hope on Dec. 2, 2008.
“He advised that he was not driving at the time of the accident,” Rateliff states in a later report.
But, on Feb. 27, 2009, after being administered a polygraph test, Gunter admitted that he was the driver of the car, according to Rateliff's report.
“During the post test interview, Gunter told authorities that he had drunk a few beers before leaving a party in North Little Rock and also took some Hydrocodone pills,” McQueen said. “He stated that when he and Collins left North Little Rock, Gunter was driving and that Collins never drove the car.”
McQueen explained the basis of the subsequent charge against Gunter.
“Under Arkansas law, it is unlawful for any person to operate a motor vehicle if at that time the alcohol concentration in the person's breath or blood was 0.08 or more,” she said. “The state never contended that Anthony Gunter intended to cause the death of his friend. Not all criminal acts require intent to commit the crime. A person can be convicted of negligent homicide even though he had no intent to cause the death of another person.
“Gunter entered a plea of no contest to the charge of negligent homicide,” she said. “A no contest plea is treated as a guilty plea.”
Collins' mother, Kawana Jones, of Emmet, has been insistent that although she had advised Dunn that both men had consumed alcohol on the night of the wreck, her son was not the driver of the car.
“The first 911 call was a man traveling from Texas that said there was a guy with long hair just running around the car,” Jones said. “That's why he called back and said he thought everything was all right, but Dunn said he had to go out anyway because he got a call.
“I wanted people to know that Lance wasn't the driver; and, I wanted them to know that alcohol and pills just doesn't mix. Like I told Anthony in court, I wished that he would learn from his mistake and that it didn't have to go this far. I really didn't want Anthony to go to jail, if he'd have just told the truth from the beginning.”
Jones said she was convinced by the circumstances that her son was the passenger, and not the driver.
“Lance couldn't text while he was driving, and the last text to his girlfriend was at 11:10,” she said. “They say the wreck happened at 11:10; there's just some things that didn't add up.”
