Little Rock teen pleads guilty to four murder charges, sentenced to 50 years
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A Little Rock teen accused in multiple deadly shootings in 2020, 2021 and 2022 has pleaded guilty to murder charges and will spend decades in prison.
Freddrick Jackson had been in jail since April 12, 2022, after being charged with four counts of first-degree murder. Jackson pleaded guilty to all charges Tuesday in Pulaski County Circuit Court and was sentenced to 50 years in state prison.
Court records show the now 19-year-old Jackson committed the first murder in 2020 when he was 15 years old. Sixth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Will Jones said the effects left by Jackson’s actions on central Arkansas families proves the need for early intervention.
“The defendant was a teenager when senseless acts of violence destroyed multiple families,” Jones explained. “This reaffirms that more community resources are needed to intercept at-risk juveniles before lives are impacted.”
The Goff family was one those impacted by Jackson. The teen shot and killed 26-year-old Dolan Goff in April 2022 when Goff stopped to break up a fight on Springer Boulevard in Little Rock.
Jackson was 17 at the time of the shooting and was on parole for drug charges.
“There was a confrontation, he [Dolan] pulled over to help, and they started shooting at him for no reason,” Dolan’s mother, Sheri Goff, said in a February 2023 interview. “He never even got out of his truck.”
Sheri was in court Tuesday for Jackson’s sentencing, which she said provided some sense of relief after two years of waiting for the case to go to trial. This was despite Jackson showing “no remorse” when he entered his plea, she said.
“It’s just ruined our whole family,” Sheri said.
Sheri explained Dolan was in line to take over the 45-year-old family trophy business, in what would be the third generation of the family to be at its helm. Now those plans are ruined, she said, adding that she did not feel the punishment fit the crime.
“I don’t think 50 years is enough for what he’s [Jackson’s] done,” she said about Jackon pleading guilty to four murders. “This city is just pitiful.”
At the time of Dolan Goff’s murder, Jackson was serving a five-year probation term for drug charges.
Dolan’s 2022 murder was during a record-setting year for homicides in Little Rock when 81 were recorded, breaking the record of 76 set in 1993 when gang violence was prevalent.
Faced with a climbing homicide rate, the city declared violent crime a public health emergency in February 2022.
“One of the individuals that’s causing a lot of the crime, one of the most violent people in our city, is 17 years old,” Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said during a city board meeting at the time, referring to Jackson.
Two months later Dolan Goff would be dead.
The case against a second suspect in the case, Cyrus Walker, is still working its way through the courts. Like Jackson, Walker was a teenager at the time Dolan Goff was shot and killed.
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