Reputed Crips gang member handed prison term in Carthage firearm case

May 14—A Jasper County judge recently sentenced a reputed Crips gang member from Arkansas to three years in prison for possession of a firearm as a felon in a 2021 incident in Carthage.

Judge Gayle Crane assessed Wayne D. Coleman, 42, the prison time at a plea and sentencing hearing May 6 in Jasper County Circuit Court.

The defendant pleaded guilty to the firearm count in a plea deal dismissing a related count of armed criminal action and capping the prison time he might receive at three years.

Coleman initially faced a kidnapping charge as well, but that count was dismissed prior to a preliminary hearing in December 2021.

Officers responding to a report of a man who pulled a gun on others and forced a woman into his vehicle on Bois D'Arc Street in Carthage located the vehicle parked at an address on Robertson Avenue with Coleman in the driver's seat.

A consent search of the vehicle purportedly turned up some ecstasy pills and meth pipes but no gun.

A search warrant was obtained on the house from which another occupant of the vehicle emerged while Coleman was being detained, and a 9 mm pistol reported stolen in Little Rock, Arkansas, was recovered from a bedroom closet, according to a probable-cause affidavit.

The woman allegedly forced into the vehicle told police Coleman was mad about some money he believed had been stolen from him. Coleman told police he had given the woman $800 for methamphetamine and marijuana that he later discovered to be fake.

Court records listed an address in Edina, Missouri, for Coleman at the time of the incident but also identified him as a reputed Crips gang member from Arkansas with prior felony convictions in Mississippi.