Capital murder charge reduced to evidence tampering in Ash Street killing; defendant gets probation

TEXARKANA, Ark. – A man charged with capital murder in the 2024 killing of a 77-year-old Texarkana man pleaded guilty Monday to a reduced charge of tampering with physical evidence and was placed on probation.

Jayden Shamar Arnold, 20, was placed on six years of probation and fined $1,500 under the state’s first-offender law, according to an order signed by Miller County Circuit Judge Carlton D. Jones. The order imposes no prison time.

Arnold had been scheduled to go to trial Monday on the capital murder charge, court records show.

He was charged in the death of Pedro M. Triana Sr., who was found dead Feb. 12, 2024, inside his home in the 800 block of Ash Street. Police said at the time that Triana had been shot.

Court records do not say why the charge was reduced. Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell signed the plea document, which lists the amended charge and the six-year probation term.

Tampering with physical evidence is a Class D felony, the lowest class of felony in Arkansas. Capital murder is the most serious charge under state law.

Under the first-offender law, known as Act 346, the judge did not find Arnold guilty or enter a conviction. If Arnold completes probation, the case will be dismissed and the record sealed, according to the order.

The order states that Arnold had no prior felony conviction and that the amended charge is not a felony involving violence.

A second man charged in Triana’s death, DaCorey Moss, 21, pleaded guilty Aug. 31 to first-degree murder, court records show.

Two arrests, 14 months apart

Texarkana Arkansas police arrested Moss on Feb. 16, 2024, four days after Triana was found, as TXKtoday reported at the time. Prosecutors charged him with capital murder, alleging Triana was killed during an attempted aggravated robbery.

Moss asked the court in a handwritten motion in September 2024 to dismiss the charge.

Moss wrote that he did not fit the description, that there was no DNA evidence against him and that shoe prints did not match.

“I never met the victim or seen him in my life,” he wrote.

Police announced Arnold’s arrest in April 2025. The department said DNA recovered from the scene had been submitted to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory and that it was notified April 14, 2025, of a match to Arnold through a national DNA database, as TXKtoday reported. He was arrested two days later.

Arnold was 17 when Triana was killed and 18 when he was arrested, according to the birth date listed in court records.

On May 2, 2025, about two weeks after Arnold’s arrest, prosecutors amended the charge against Moss to allege he acted “alone or as an accomplice.” Arnold was formally charged May 30, 2025, with the same wording.

Arnold was held without bond for nearly 11 months. Jones set bond at $75,000 on March 10 and reduced it to $50,000 with a leg monitor on April 21, court records show.

Moss’ case

Prosecutors reduced the charge against Moss to first-degree murder Aug. 31, and he pleaded guilty the same day, court records show. He asked that a jury decide his sentence. First-degree murder is punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in prison.

A jury was selected that afternoon. On Sept. 1, Moss’ attorney, public defender Jason Mitchell, asked the court to bar prosecutors from using photographs collected by police during the 2024 investigation. He wrote that he received the photographs that day, after the jury had been chosen.

The sentencing trial began Sept. 2 and ended the same day when Circuit Judge Wren Autrey granted a defense motion for a mistrial, according to court records. The record does not state the reason.

Moss’ case is now set for a jury trial Nov. 16, with a status hearing Oct. 13.

Moss has been in custody since his arrest. His plea document lists 927 days of jail credit.