Jury finds Hamburg man guilty in less than 30 minutes

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Steven Wayne McDougald, 45, was convicted last month by an Ashley County jury of kidnapping and second-degree sexual assault against a 2-year-old Ashley County resident.

Circuit Judge Sam Pope upheld the jury’s recommendation of two consecutive 20-year sentences in the Arkansas Department of Correction. The jury deliberated for 30 minutes on Jan. 15 before returning with the guilty verdict.

An habitual offender with four prior convictions, McDougald, of Hamburg, was arrested March 30 after he left with the toddler on a four-wheeler during a cookout and did not return in a timely manner.

The mother of the toddler reported that McDougald had asked her husband if he could take the child for a ride around the premises on the four-wheeler but left the immediate area without parental consent. A phone call to McDougald was made when the parents realized he had left the area, approximately 30 minutes later.

McDougald reportedly told them he was on his way back with the child.

When he did not return, the father of the toddler and the host of the cookout searched the area on atvs and found McDougald and the toddler approximately an hour and a half after they first went missing near a creek in the Fountain Hill area.

Police were notified after the child told her parents McDougald had inappropriately touched her.

Forensic experts presented dna evidence that indicated the child had been touched inappropriately.

Prosecutor David Cason told the jury there was only one set of tire tracks found in the woods, which disputed McDougald’s claims of being lost.

“If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, it’s probably a duck,” Cason said.