Jofflin Brown, a 27-year-old Black man known to friends and family as “Big JayJay,” was a father of three described as outgoing, funny, and confident. His life was cut short on the evening of September 11, 2021, in his hometown of Magnolia, Arkansas. Around 10:30 p.m., police were dispatched to the Fox Creek Apartments after receiving calls about shots being fired. A second call soon followed, reporting a man lying on the ground behind the complex.
When officers arrived, they found Jofflin suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his right side. He was rushed to Magnolia Regional Medical Center, where a trauma team found him intubated and unresponsive due to severe internal bleeding. Despite their efforts and plans to transfer him to a larger trauma center, Jofflin Brown died from his injuries.
Detectives with the Magnolia Police Department launched a homicide investigation.
They canvassed the apartment complex, speaking with witnesses who had heard loud pops they initially thought were fireworks. A key witness told police they saw a man drop something into a dumpster right after the shooting. Inside the dumpster, investigators discovered a loaded .22 pistol with a defaced serial number. The gun contained a bullet in the chamber that had a primer strike on it, indicating it had failed to fire.
The evidence quickly led authorities to a suspect, 32-year-old Willis Landtrell Harris, also of Magnolia. He was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with Jofflin’s death. Harris also faced charges of possession of a defaced firearm and first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor, indicating a child was present during the incident.
On December 15, 2022, Willis Harris, then 33, appeared in Circuit Court and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. As part of the plea agreement, the charges for possession of a defaced firearm and endangering the welfare of a minor were dismissed. Jofflin’s mother, Sondra Brown, was in court for the hearing but declined to make a victim impact statement. The judge sentenced Harris to 20 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections, with an additional 20-year suspended sentence. The case was closed with this conviction in December 2022.
