A woman accused of shooting her former boyfriend in May and going on the run in his pickup entered a plea of not guilty to capital murder Tuesday in Miller County.
Mahogany Jashe Palmer, 21, appeared for arraignment on charges of capital murder and residential burglary Tuesday afternoon before Circuit Judge Wren Autrey. Autrey scheduled Palmer for a pretrial hearing Sept. 7.
Palmer is accused of fatally shooting 40-year-old Ernest Jackson in his residence at the Fox Creek Apartments in Texarkana, Arkansas.
Jackson was found dead of a single gunshot wound to the chest on May 25, according to a probable cause document. Jackson’s family asked managers at the Fox Creek Apartments to conduct a welfare check on him because they had not heard from him since May 19.
Jackson was found lying in the stairwell of his apartment. His 2015 Ford truck was missing and officers were unable to locate the keys.
Two days before Jackson was last seen or heard from, Texarkana, Arkansas, Police Department officers had responded to Jackson’s apartment because Jackson wanted them to assist Palmer in leaving because their dating relationship was ending.
Investigators used information on the truck’s purchase found in Jackson’s apartment to contact the dealership which had sold it to him. Using the truck’s GPS, they determined the truck was in Little Rock in a towing yard.
Palmer allegedly drove the truck off the road in Little Rock and arranged for it to be towed but was unable to pay the fee to have it released. She was allegedly captured on video there stating that the truck belonged to her boyfriend and she wasn’t supposed to be driving it.
Palmer pleaded not guilty to a charge of residential burglary alleged to have occurred June 1. That is the day Palmer was arrested on the capital murder charge by Texarkana, Arkansas, Police Department.
Palmer is being held in the Miller County jail without bail.
If convicted of capital murder she faces life in prison without parole or death.
