Teen pleads guilty to murder, gets 40-year sentence in 2021 Watson Chapel JHS killing

1 year ago 14

PINE BLUFF, Ark. – Thomas Quarles, the Arkansas teen arrested in 2021 after shooting a classmate at Watson Chapel Junior High School, has accepted a plea agreement that will put him in prison for decades.

Jefferson County prosecuting attorney S. Kyle Hunter announced Monday that 17-year-old Thomas Quarles had pleaded guilty to a charge of first-degree capital murder in the killing of 15-year-old Daylon Burnett in 2021.

As part of the plea agreement, Quarles received a sentence of 40 years in prison.

Quarles, who was 15 at the time of the incident, was arrested after he was found hiding behind a nearby home after the shooting, which happened at Watson Chapel Junior High School in Pine Bluff on March 1, 2021.