Fort Smith Murder suspect returned to Sebastian County after extradition from Houston last week

Johnson

A 20-year-old Fort Smith woman accused in the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old boy has been booked into the Sebastian County Adult Detention Center after authorities returned her from an out-of-state arrest.

Jasmine Ashanti Johnston was taken into custody at the facility on Saturday evening, August 1, on charges of first-degree murder and armed aggravated robbery. Both offenses are listed with an offense date of July 8, 2026, though the underlying incident occurred the evening before.

Her total bond stands at $500,000 cash. She is classified as medium for assault and escape risk and is housed at the Sebastian County Adult Detention Center. A court appearance is set for 9 a.m. on August 5 in Sebastian County Circuit Court in Fort Smith.

Warner Jr.

Fort Smith police say the shooting is believed to have taken place in the 5300 block of Elm Street on the evening of Tuesday, July 7. Around 6 p.m. that day, officers responded to the southbound on-ramp of Interstate 540 at Kelley Highway, near Arkansas State Police headquarters, and found the 16-year-old male victim suffering from gunshot wounds.

He was transported to a hospital, where he later died. On July 8, detectives obtained an arrest warrant through the Sebastian County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charging Johnston, then listed as 19, with first-degree murder and aggravated robbery. Police described her as armed and extremely dangerous and urged the public not to approach her.

A second suspect, 18-year-old Donny E. Warner Jr. of the Enid Street area in Fort Smith, was developed during the investigation. Warrants for the same charges were issued for him. With assistance from multiple agencies, Warner was located and arrested on July 9 in LeFlore County.

He was held there pending extradition. Warner has since entered a not-guilty plea to the first-degree murder and aggravated robbery counts in Sebastian County Circuit Court.

Johnston remained at large for nearly three weeks after the warrant was issued. On July 26, the U.S. Marshals Service Gulf Coast Task Force located her at Huckberry Park in Houston, Texas, and took her into custody without incident.

Fort Smith police later confirmed she was the remaining at-large suspect in the July 7 homicide. She was returned to Arkansas and formally booked into the Sebastian County facility on August 1 with Fort Smith Police Department listed as the booking origin.

Court and detention records show Johnston has a prior local arrest. On August 28, 2025, Fort Smith police booked her on charges of aggravated assault involving a firearm and first-degree terroristic threatening.

Those matters were marked as legally sufficient, and she was released on September 8, 2025. At the time of that earlier booking she listed an address o

The homicide investigation remains active.

Police have not released the victim’s name or further details about the sequence of events surrounding the alleged robbery and shooting. T

he case is being handled as a Class Y felony for both the murder and the armed robbery counts. Johnston’s next court date is scheduled for early this week.