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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.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Jury rules not guilty in rape trial
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By Jayme Lawson/SPECIAL TO THE COMMERCIAL
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 10:08 AM CST
Rodney Daniels, 30, of Warren, one of two men facing rape charges, has been found not guilty in Bradley County Circuit Court.
A second suspect in the case, Keatron Ridgell, 24, also of Warren, is awaiting trial.
Daniels was acquitted following at two-day trial, which ended Jan. 23.
According to testimony, an 18-year-old woman reported that she was raped by Ridgell last year at a friend’s apartment while four other people were upstairs.
After being raped by Ridgell, she said, he left with her cell phone, and his phone was left behind. The victim testified she called Ridgell by dialing her number on his phone. He returned and “grabbed hold of her and made her leave with him,” according to Prosecutor Frank Spain.
She alleged that Ridgell took her to another apartment, where she was taken upstairs against her will, held down by Ridgell and Daniels. With other unidentified men also in the room, she was forced to engage repeatedly in sex.
The victim’s friends who were at the apartment where the first rape allegedly occurred testified that they heard the victim call out, but when they couldn’t find her downstairs, they called her phone. The person who answered her phone led the woman’s friends to the apartment where they ran upstairs and “saw their friend being forced to have sex with people,” Spain said.
The friends left the apartment and called 911. Ridgell reportedly left the apartment before police arrived, and authorities found Daniels leaving the residence. He was questioned whether anyone else was in the apartment to which Daniels replied, “No.” When the alleged victim was located upstairs, Daniels maintained that he did not know she was upstairs and that he did not engage in sex with her.
When forensic results from a rape kit and bodily fluids located during the investigation indicated that both men had engaged in intercourse with the alleged victim, Daniels admitted that he did have sex with the woman but claimed it was consensual.
By Jayme Lawson/SPECIAL TO THE COMMERCIAL
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 10:08 AM CST
Rodney Daniels, 30, of Warren, one of two men facing rape charges, has been found not guilty in Bradley County Circuit Court.
A second suspect in the case, Keatron Ridgell, 24, also of Warren, is awaiting trial.
Daniels was acquitted following at two-day trial, which ended Jan. 23.
According to testimony, an 18-year-old woman reported that she was raped by Ridgell last year at a friend’s apartment while four other people were upstairs.
After being raped by Ridgell, she said, he left with her cell phone, and his phone was left behind. The victim testified she called Ridgell by dialing her number on his phone. He returned and “grabbed hold of her and made her leave with him,” according to Prosecutor Frank Spain.
She alleged that Ridgell took her to another apartment, where she was taken upstairs against her will, held down by Ridgell and Daniels. With other unidentified men also in the room, she was forced to engage repeatedly in sex.
The victim’s friends who were at the apartment where the first rape allegedly occurred testified that they heard the victim call out, but when they couldn’t find her downstairs, they called her phone. The person who answered her phone led the woman’s friends to the apartment where they ran upstairs and “saw their friend being forced to have sex with people,” Spain said.
The friends left the apartment and called 911. Ridgell reportedly left the apartment before police arrived, and authorities found Daniels leaving the residence. He was questioned whether anyone else was in the apartment to which Daniels replied, “No.” When the alleged victim was located upstairs, Daniels maintained that he did not know she was upstairs and that he did not engage in sex with her.
When forensic results from a rape kit and bodily fluids located during the investigation indicated that both men had engaged in intercourse with the alleged victim, Daniels admitted that he did have sex with the woman but claimed it was consensual.
Former city employee pleads guilty to theft
A former City of Warren sanitation department employee pled guilty to a felony theft of property charge and was sentenced to five years in the Arkansas Department of Correction and ordered to pay the city restitution in the amount of $4,679.18.
Mack Henry Collins, 55, of Warren, was fired from his job July 10, 2008, in the midst of an investigation in which he was suspected of charging several hundred dollars worth of fuel to the City of Warren for his personal use.
A week after his termination, he was arrested following a police investigation into the matter, in which additional unauthorized fuel receipts from a local station were discovered.
Jury orders $2,500 to man who remains unresponsive in nursing home...
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A Drew County jury ordered $2,500 to be paid in retribution to a man who remains unresponsive in a nursing home and has incurred more than $11,000 of unpaid medical bills since he was injured by Robert Carr, convicted last week of battery in the second degree.
Carr was also required to pay a $7,000 fine. Because he is an habitual offender with at least four previous felonies, Carr will be required to serve out his prior sentences due to parole violations stemming from the battery conviction , but was sentenced to no time by the jury in relation to the most recent conviction.
A witness at the trial testified that she observed Carr punch Eddie Baines in the face during an apparent argument on June 10, 2008, and that Baines immediately fell backwards to the ground. The witness called 911 at the request of Carr when Baines would not move and blood was seen pouring from his ear.
When police arrived at the scene, Carr was seen standing nearby, “smiling a little,” according to Prosecutor Frank Spain and was questioned. Carr told police that he and Baines had argued, Baines swung at Carr, missed and fell, hitting his head on the ground. Later, Carr recanted his story and said he had thrown his hands up to dodge an attempted blow by Baines and accidentally struck Baines in the head. Monticello Police Lt. Greg Johnson reported swelling around the eye/cheek area of the victim.
Baines was transferred from Drew Memorial Hospital to Jefferson Regional Medical Center where he underwent brain surgery in attempts to reduce swelling. He has since remained in a nursing home, where, according to the testimony of one of his nurses, he doesn’t have the ability to talk and is fed through feeding and water machines. She added that he has remained non-responsive and doesn’t appear to have any awareness of his surroundings. “She said that sometimes he moves his hand or his head, or preps his blanket,” Spain said.
The nurse testified that, based on her experience and education, “without a miracle, he will permanently be in that bed,” saying his it’s not likely his condition will ever improve.
A Drew County jury ordered $2,500 to be paid in retribution to a man who remains unresponsive in a nursing home and has incurred more than $11,000 of unpaid medical bills since he was injured by Robert Carr, convicted last week of battery in the second degree.
Carr was also required to pay a $7,000 fine. Because he is an habitual offender with at least four previous felonies, Carr will be required to serve out his prior sentences due to parole violations stemming from the battery conviction , but was sentenced to no time by the jury in relation to the most recent conviction.
A witness at the trial testified that she observed Carr punch Eddie Baines in the face during an apparent argument on June 10, 2008, and that Baines immediately fell backwards to the ground. The witness called 911 at the request of Carr when Baines would not move and blood was seen pouring from his ear.
When police arrived at the scene, Carr was seen standing nearby, “smiling a little,” according to Prosecutor Frank Spain and was questioned. Carr told police that he and Baines had argued, Baines swung at Carr, missed and fell, hitting his head on the ground. Later, Carr recanted his story and said he had thrown his hands up to dodge an attempted blow by Baines and accidentally struck Baines in the head. Monticello Police Lt. Greg Johnson reported swelling around the eye/cheek area of the victim.
Baines was transferred from Drew Memorial Hospital to Jefferson Regional Medical Center where he underwent brain surgery in attempts to reduce swelling. He has since remained in a nursing home, where, according to the testimony of one of his nurses, he doesn’t have the ability to talk and is fed through feeding and water machines. She added that he has remained non-responsive and doesn’t appear to have any awareness of his surroundings. “She said that sometimes he moves his hand or his head, or preps his blanket,” Spain said.
The nurse testified that, based on her experience and education, “without a miracle, he will permanently be in that bed,” saying his it’s not likely his condition will ever improve.
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