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Helsham gets 3 years’ probation |
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Tuesday, 10 June 2008 |
Chris Helsham, the co-defendant in a case involving the concealment of a child’s birth, was sentenced Monday afternoon to three years’ probation.
Helsham fathered a baby born June 25, 2006, to Jill Jones, formerly of Benton, according to court records. Jones told police detectives that she delivered the baby alone at her former home in Benton and later told authorities that the child was stillborn.
Helsham, a native of Honolulu, Hawaii, who now lives in the Benton area, previously admitted to authorities that he burned the body of the baby born to Jones.
After the birth, Jones said she met Helsham at a relative’s house in Haskell to hand over the baby’s body.
According to Helsham’s confession, he took the infant’s body to Gentry where he burned it, scooped up the remains and threw them in a dumpster.Despite efforts of Detective Brett Carpenter and others with the Benton Police Department, the body was not recovered and a further search was reported to be impractical.
Trash from the dump site in question reportedly is delivered to different landfills in and out of Arkansas. Scientific testing to determine whether the baby was born alive would be impossible without a body, authorities said.
Circuit Judge Grisham Phillips did not sentence Helsham to any jail time, but fined him $1,000. He also was assessed court costs, a DNA fee and a $20 booking fee.
Phillips said Helsham is designated as a first offender, which makes it possible for his record to be expunged if he successfully completes probation.
Helsham told the court that he did not mean any disrespect by burning the child’s body. He said his father was cremated and that is his wish for himself when he dies. He also told Phillips that he hopes to see his child again some day.
After Helsham made that statement, Phillips referred to a biblical passage in which King David was told that his son would not live. “When his son died, David said he could not come to him, but he said he could go to him,” Phillips quoted.
Prosecuting Attorney Ken Casady told Phillips that he considered Helsham less culpable than Jones and the judge said he agreed with that assessment.
Helsham, 22, had been scheduled for sentencing last week. Sentencing was delayed at the request of Helsham’s attorney, Dustin Dyer of Benton.
Jones, 21, was sentenced by Phillips to six years’ probation, three of which are to be supervised.
She also was sentenced to serve 22 days at the Saline County Detention Facility, where she is currently incarcerated. She is scheduled for release on June 25, the date of the baby’s birth. In addition, she was ordered to serve a week in the county jail for the first four years on the anniversary date of the baby’s birth and to perform 100 hours of community service.
Phillips imposed a $1 fine on Jones, saying he did not set the amount higher because he “could not and would not” place a price on the life of a baby. Casady had recommended that Jones be sentenced to two years at a regional correctional facility. He said she was offered help from several people and chose not to accept the assistance.
After the sentence was imposed, Casady said he considered the punishment fair.
“I viewed this as an important case in principle. This wasn’t about ruining somebody’s reputation. It was about the fact that the state and the court in this type of case should not be in a position to wonder or to have to take the word from the defendant about what happened to an infant.”Jones had been scheduled for trial May 20 but entered her guilty plea earlier in the month.
Concealing the birth of a child is a class D felony, punishable by up to six years in prison.
When Jones testified in her sentencing hearing last week, she said she is “very remorseful” for her actions and regrets having caused pain for her family and friends. She told the judge that he would “never see me in this courtroom or any other again.”
Testifying on her behalf were Candy Miller, a family friend; Laurie Cox, a church friend who has known Jones for several years and whose children were entrusted to Jones’ care; and Lita Gattis, a Benton High School counselor who has been acquainted with Jones for several years.
All testified that Jones is remorseful. They acknowledged that she made a mistake in judgment and said she and her family have “suffered greatly.” They described Jones as “a good girl who panicked” because of her circumstances.
Casady told the judge that the damage to Jones’ reputation and the pain and suffering she and her family experienced are “consequences of her action, not punishment.”
Jones’ attorney, Bill James, said “shame, remorse and embarrassment” are sufficient punishment and he recommended a probated sentence, counseling and community service.
According to the final statement of facts obtained from the circuit clerk’s office, sometime in November 2005, Jones and Helsham conceived the child. Through December 2005 and January 2006, Jones experienced morning sickness, which reportedly was noticed by her supervisor, Holly Friend, and co-workers at Smith-Caldwell Drug Store in Benton.
Authorities said that on June 25, 2006, Jones gave birth to a baby girl in the upstairs bathroom of her home on McCurdy Street in Benton. In the statement she gave to Benton police Detective Brett Carpenter at the time of her arrest in 2007, Jones said the baby was stillborn and that no other person was at home at the time nor did she have help in delivering the baby.
She did not seek medical attention for herself or the baby, according to court documents. Jones also reportedly told Carpenter that she tried to revive the baby and cut the umbilical cord thinking it might help the baby breathe. She said she did not call 911 or her parents because she thought if she told her parents “they would think I murdered it.”
The court documents also showed that Jones became emotional and denied her pregnancy when confronted by her supervisor. After continued questioning, however, Jones acknowledged that she could, in fact, be pregnant.
Her supervisor reportedly provided her with the name of an adoption attorney, but said Jones was “emphatic that she was not having a baby,” the court documents state.
In the following months, Jones refused to publicly acknowledge that she was pregnant despite a change in her body size and style of clothing. Although she denied her pregnancy to her supervisor and co-workers, Jones reportedly acknowledged it to Helsham in December 2005.
After her arrest in 2007, Jones confessed to Carpenter that she had thought about having an abortion and that she had discussed this possibility with Helsham. Jones also said she discussed and researched late-term abortions with a co-worker.
In May 2006, when Jones was exhibiting signs of being pregnant at work, her supervisor said she alerted her of the dangers of not receiving prenatal care and made an appointment for Jones to see a Hot Springs doctor. Jones, however, failed to keep the appointment.
On June 6, 2006, Jones saw her family doctor seeking treatment for a urinary tract infection. Without knowing she was pregnant, her doctor prescribed antibiotics that included warnings in the literature that the drugs were not to be used during pregnancy.
After the birth of the child on June 25, 2006, Jones wrapped the baby in towels, put it in a trash bag and stored it in her closet until the next day, authorities reported in court documents.
Earlier that month, when approached by Patti Chester, co-owner of Smith-Caldwell, Jones had acknowledged that she was pregnant. Chester then suggested to Jones that they both talk to Jones’ mother, Janice Jones. Jones, however, requested that Chester give her a week to tell her mother.
Later that night, Chester said she changed her mind and she and Friend went to Jones’ home and shared their concerns with Janice Jones.
Janice Jones reported that she asked her daughter if she was pregnant and Jill Jones begged her mother not to tell her father, Phil Jones, and the rest of her family.
Friend and Chester said they left the Jones home with assurance from Janice Jones that she would take care of her daughter. At that time, Phil Jones was living and working in Springdale.
In late June, when Jill Jones came back to work at Smith-Caldwell “very swollen and appearing very ill,” she was sent home, the court documents stated. The following week, after giving birth, Jones returned to work wearing a form-fitting dress and having obviously lost weight.
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