Photo: Christopher Alan Whitman
A Mountain Home man charged with shooting a 21-year-old male in the leg faced similar allegations less than seven months ago.
Thirty-year-old Christopher Alan Whitman appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday and entered a not guilty plea to the new charges against him and was ordered to reappear June 25
Events leading up to Whitman’s latest arrest involving shots fired began just after 2 June 2, when the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office was notified a man had come to the Baxter Regional Medical Center emergency room with a gunshot wound.
Investigators interviewed the victim. He said he received a message from Whitman saying he wanted to talk. Whitman picked up the victim at his residence.
At one point, the Mountain Home man said he wanted to discuss a “rumor” about the victim forcing himself on a woman Whitman knew. The victim was reported to have denied the rumor.
Whitman and the victim continued to drive around.
As they headed toward Old Arkana Road, Whitman is reported to have told the victim he was to be asked questions about the rumor, and his life depended on the answers.
Whitman pulled over and ordered the victim out. He was alleged to have brandished the revolver and then shot the victim once in the right leg before fleeing the scene.
The victim was able to call a relative who picked him up and took him to Baxter Regional Medical Center.
Whitman was located, and the weapon was found in his vehicle. Investigators discovered one round had been discharged.
Because of the guilty plea in the shooting case last year, Whitman was a convicted felon and prohibited from being around firearms.
After being located, Whitman was taken to the sheriff’s office. He first said the gun belonged to the victim, who had shot himself.
A woman saw Whitman’s picture on the inmate roster of the Baxter County jail and called the sheriff’s office.
She said after she saw the picture, she looked for her handgun, and found it missing.
The woman lives on 16th Street where Whitman was reported to have made a stop on the drive around with the victim, and the description of the weapon given by the woman matched the one found in the suspect’s vehicle.
In the latest shooting incident, Whitman is charged with terroristic threatening, using another person’s property to facilitate a crime, first degree battery and violating the terms and conditions of his probation handed down in his earlier case.
In the previous case, Whitman was arrested and charged with aggravated assault stemming from an event occurring in the early morning hours of Nov. 5 last year, after Mountain Home police responded to a call reporting a disturbance with shots fired.
The victim told police he had been confronted by Whitman and had been shot at.
Whitman admitted he had fired a .22-caliber pistol into the ground during the confrontation. He said he had then given the pistol to a friend, but refused to tell police the name of the person.
In March, Whitman pled guilty to the aggravated assault charge and was put on probation for four years. The new crime resulted in a petition to revoke the probation he was given in the first case.
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