FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.— A Fayetteville man has pleaded guilty to shooting a woman in the chest and killing an inmate at Washington County Jail in 2019.
Dekota Harvey, 24, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, March 9 to two counts of capital murder and one count of attempted capital murder.
Harvey received life without the possibility of parole for the two counts of capital murder and a life sentence for the attempted capital murder.
In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors will not pursue the death penalty.
Matt Durrett is the Washington County Prosecuting Attorney. He said the plea was reached based on conversations with one of the victim’s mothers.
“She was really tired of waiting around and wanted to get some sense of closure,” Durrett said. “This will allow her to start her grieving process and do it on her time.”
Harvey has been in custody since March of 2019 on attempted capital murder and capital murder charges.
Harvey shot his ex-girlfriend in the leg and killed her friend by shooting her in the chest.
KNWA/FOX24 talked with the survivors of the shooting in March 2019 who said their lives are changed forever by the ‘monster’ who took their best friend and girlfriend’s life.
“It went through the door and then I looked up and I see the bullets flying and I heard two more and I didn’t know what was happening I was just screaming,” said Courtney Willie, Dekota Harvey’s ex-friend and victim of the shooting.
The incident was a breakup turned deadly.
“I thought they were all dead because there were so many gunshots and I had seen what he did to Alexis so I thought the worse had happened to Shae,” says Teanna Shaffer, shooting survivor.
Twenty-one-year-old Courtney Willie, also known as Shea, and 22-year-old Dekota Harvey dated for almost two years. Willie said after constant abuse she decided she had enough.
“He didn’t like anybody making me happy. He was very angry almost all the time no matter what I did,” said Willie.
In August 2019, Harvey admitted to strangling and killing his cellmate Luis Cobos-Cenobio while in custody at Washington County jail.
Harvey will be transferred an Arkansas Department of Corrections state prison.
