A Sherwood man has accepted a 35-year prison sentence for murdering his estranged wife in Little Rock in front of the couple’s daughter.
Ernest Danell Holmes, 44, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, reduced from capital murder, committing a terroristic act and being a felon in possession of a firearm in exchange for the sentence imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson, according to sentencing papers filed last week.
Shina Shunte Staten-Grigsby Holmes, 39, of North Little Rock was found fatally wounded in the passenger seat of her daughter’s white 2017 Nissan Sentra on Birdie Lane about 2 p.m. July 30. Police and emergency medical personnel tried to save her but the mother of six died at the scene.
Jakiahia Holmes, the couple’s daughter, told police she and her mother had been stopped at 4 Birdie Lane, the home of her brother, 23-year-old Jermaury Damond Gaddy, when she saw her father drive up in his sister’s blue Dodge Charger.
Jakiahia Holmes said she got back into the Sentra and her mother told her to put the car in reverse, but before she could, Ernest Holmes called out, “b****, I told you” and started shooting into the car. He then fled in the Charger.
Her daughter told police Shina Holmes had been hiding from her husband for some time because he’d been using drugs and abusing her. Records don’t show how long they had been married but indicate they had been together for more than 20 years. The terroristic act count represents the gunshot fired at Jakiahia Holmes.
Police reports show that 10 days before she was killed, Shina Holmes had called Sherwood police to report Ernest Holmes had just called and told her he was on his way to shoot her. She said she did not know where he was calling from or what kind of car he was driving.
Police did not encounter Ernest Holmes, but an officer patrolling the neighborhood reported encountering a gray Jeep Renegade driving slowly by Shina Holmes’ residence, then turning around and leaving. The vehicle was registered to a relative of Ernest Holmes.
In the wake of Shina Holmes’ murder, Little Rock police put out a bulletin to surrounding law enforcement agencies about Ernest Holmes and the car, and he was arrested on East Broadway Street in Little Rock about 90 minutes later. He told arresting officers “I shot her” and claimed she had been unfaithful to him. He’s been jailed ever since.
Under conditions of his plea agreement, negotiated by deputy prosecutor Melissa Jones and public defender Harrison Torme, Holmes received a concurrent 30-year term on charges of breaking or entering, theft and being a felon in possession of a handgun for stealing the weapon he used to kill his wife.
About two hours before the murder, Ernest Holmes had broken into a 2014 Chevrolet Silverado pickup parked at Ketcher & Co. Inc., 1717 E. Fifth St., in North Little Rock by breaking out the rear passenger window with a brick and stealing a .40 caliber pistol from the vehicle. Surveillance video showed Holmes getting into the car, then spending a few minutes inside before leaving.
The truck’s owner, 46-year-old Christopher Abram of Jacksonville, recognized Holmes as a co-worker at the roofing company, telling police he had regularly given Holmes rides in the car and that Holmes knew where he kept the gun.
Holmes, also known as Earnest Holmes, received a two-year prison sentence in 2018 for second-degree battery, reduced from first-degree battery, for stabbing an acquaintance, Kenrossie Iverson, after Iverson had broken up an argument between Holmes and another man.
Holmes has a pending criminal mischief case in Jefferson County related to accusations that he vandalized a slot machine at Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff in November 2023. Surveillance video shows Holmes striking the machine with his fist, then leaving before security arrived.
