KEENAN HUDSON v. STATE OF ARKANSAS

CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedSeptember 25, 2025
DocketCR-23-656
StatusPublished

This text of KEENAN HUDSON v. STATE OF ARKANSAS (KEENAN HUDSON v. STATE OF ARKANSAS) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
KEENAN HUDSON v. STATE OF ARKANSAS, (Ark. 2025).

Opinion

Cite as 2025 Ark. 129 SUPREME COURT OF ARKANSAS No. CR-23-656

Opinion Delivered: September 25, 2025

KEENAN HUDSON APPELLANT APPEAL FROM THE ARKANSAS V. COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT [NO. 01SCR-19-25] STATE OF ARKANSAS APPELLEE HONORABLE DONNA GALLOWAY, JUDGE

AFFIRMED.

COURTNEY RAE HUDSON, Associate Justice

Appellant Keenan Hudson appeals his capital-murder conviction in the Arkansas

County Circuit Court. He received a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility

of parole, plus a fifteen-year firearm enhancement. For reversal, Hudson argues that (1) the

evidence supporting his conviction was legally insufficient; (2) the circuit court erred by not

suppressing his in-custody statements; and (3) the record could not be settled and remains

insufficient for our review. We affirm.

On February 19, 2019, Hudson was charged with one count of capital murder in

connection with the death of Zyrique “Zack” Geans on February 13, 2019. The criminal

information also alleged that Hudson was a habitual offender and that he was subject to a

sentence enhancement for using a firearm during the commission of the offense. The criminal information was later amended to add a charge of possession of a firearm by a felon;

however, this charge was severed prior to trial and then nolle prossed by the State.

Hudson’s jury trial was held on January 24–27, 2023, and the State presented the

following evidence in support of the charges. The victim’s brother, Akilli Geans, testified

that on the afternoon of February 13, 2019, he was sitting with acquaintances behind a

trailer at the corner of Porter and Lincoln Streets in Stuttgart, Arkansas. He left to go to a

convenience store, and when he returned, he learned that his brother and Hudson had

gotten into an altercation. Akilli then saw Hudson walking up the street holding a black

handgun. Hudson got into a purple Chevrolet Camaro convertible driven by his brother,

Chyvontae Powell, and they drove off. Akilli asked Ellis Berry to drive him to Akilli’s

grandmother’s, Wilma Bradford’s, house to check on his brother, Zack, who resided there.

As they approached Bradford’s Cleveland Street residence, Akilli noticed the purple Camaro

a couple of car lengths behind them. Akilli testified that when he and Berry stopped at the

stop sign at the intersection of Cherry and Cleveland Streets, he looked in the rearview

mirror and saw Hudson standing up in the vehicle and shooting his gun toward Bradford’s

house. Akilli stated that Zack was underneath the carport of the home at this point and was

not shooting. Akilli testified that he and Berry sped off as Hudson began firing his gun and

that he heard shots from an automatic weapon a few seconds later. Akilli stated that Zack

then called him and told him that Hudson had shot him. Zack passed away shortly afterward.

Berry’s testimony was consistent with Akilli’s. Berry stated that after he and Akilli

pulled up to the trailer at Porter and Lincoln that afternoon and heard about the altercation

between Zack and Hudson, he saw Hudson “fly past with his brother with a gun, saying,

2 Let’s handle this. Let’s go handle this.” Berry testified that Hudson was a passenger in his

brother’s Camaro at the time Berry heard this. Berry and Akilli then drove toward

Bradford’s house on the east side of town and saw the Camaro behind them. When Berry

stopped at the stop sign at Cherry and Cleveland, he stated that he heard gunshots and saw

Hudson shooting toward Bradford’s house. Berry testified that he did not hear any other

gunshots prior to seeing Hudson fire his gun.

Ronta Ross testified that he was sitting in his car outside the trailer at Porter and

Lincoln on February 13, 2019, when Hudson got into the passenger side. Ross stated that

several minutes later, Zack came up and struck Hudson with a gun. Ross indicated that

Hudson and Zack scuffled for a minute and that the two then went their separate ways.

Ross testified that he went inside the trailer to get a snack, and when he came back out, he

saw Hudson driving off with his brother in the Camaro.

Dwight Hood, who lives at the corner of Cleveland and Cherry, testified that he was

outside cleaning his truck on the afternoon of February 13, when he heard two gunshots

coming from the direction of Cherry Street, followed by gunfire from an automatic weapon.

He was not able to see who was shooting. He then saw two groups of people running, one

near Bradford’s house and one farther down past the stop sign on Cherry Street. Patrick

Mills, another neighbor, also testified that he heard two gunshots that afternoon, followed

seconds later by additional gunfire. When Mills stepped outside after hearing the first two

shots, the Camaro was at the stop sign at the corner of Cherry and Cleveland, and he saw

Hudson shooting out of the car.

3 Mark Duke, who was a lieutenant with the Stuttgart Police Department at the time

of the murder, testified that he responded to the scene of the shooting and found the purple

Camaro, which had been rendered disabled due to gunfire, sitting on Cherry Street south

of the intersection with Cleveland Street. Hudson and Powell were standing outside the

vehicle. Duke noticed a trail of empty shell casings starting in the vehicle and leading north

on Cherry past the Cleveland Street intersection. Additional shell casings were discovered

in the driveway of Bradford’s home and near a deck in her yard, and Duke stated that the

wall and the floor of the carport contained blood spatter from the murder victim.

Criminal Investigator Jeremiah Richard testified as to the location and type of shell

casings that were found at the scene. The fourteen shell casings found in and along the path

of the Camaro were 9mm in caliber, and most of these were radically invasive projectile, or

“RIP” bullets, which are designed to fragment on impact to maximize damage. Richard

stated that the four shell casings in the driveway were also 9mm caliber but from a different

manufacturer than those found near the Camaro. The third group of shell casings near the

deck of the residence were 7.62x36mm bullets, which are consistent with bullets fired from

an AK-47 rifle. No weapon was found in the Camaro, but Richard testified that a Taurus

pistol and an AK-47 rifle were recovered outside Bradford’s residence. The examination of

the Camaro revealed multiple bullet holes on the front hood and passenger side, and nine

of the 9mm shell casings were found inside the vehicle, primarily in the backseat area.

Richard interviewed Hudson following the shooting, and Hudson denied possessing or

shooting a gun during the incident.

4 Dr. Adam Craig, the forensic pathologist, testified that the victim died from a

gunshot wound to the abdomen that perforated the aorta and that he recovered bullet

fragments consistent with an RIP bullet. The firearm and toolmark examiner, Zachery

Elder, testified that the 9mm. shell casings found in the Camaro and on Cherry Street were

all fired from the same handgun, that the second group of 9mm shell casings found in

Bradford’s driveway were all fired from a different handgun, and that the shell casings found

near the deck of the residence were all fired from the same rifle. Angela Evans, the forensic

criminologist, testified that Hudson’s clothing contained gunshot residue. In addition,

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