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Garcia guilty of child rape, gets 100 years |
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Thursday, 03 December 2009 |
It took only 15 minutes on Wednesday for a Saline County jury to find a Benton man guilty of sexually assaulting three children in his home.
Circuit Judge Gary Arnold followed the jury’s recommendation and sentenced former Alexander Police Sgt. Jeffrey Garcia, 36, to 100 years in the Arkansas Department of Correction.
Garcia was charged with two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. He was sentenced to two 40-year sentences for the rape charges and the maximum of 20 years for sexual assault. All will be served consecutively.
Garcia was first arrested on March 30 after police received a complaint that he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl, a 13-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl in his home in the 1700 block of South Main Street in Benton.
According to testimony during the trial, the youngest girl told a friend at Ringgold Elementary school that her mom’s boyfriend (Garcia) had raped her several times over several years.
The youngest girl, who testified on Tuesday, said the assaults first started when she was 9 and in the third grade. All three children said Garcia lived with them and their mother for just under 10 years.
Robin Hudson, a counselor at Ringgold Elementary, told the jury that she had known all three children for about nine years. She said it was the youngest who made her aware of the situation happening in their home, on March 30.
“She and her best friend came into my office,” Hudson said. She said the youngest girl raised her head up, with tears in her eyes, and said she had been (raped) by Garcia.
Hudson added, “Her best friend looked at me helplessly, while (the youngest girl) sat in my lap and just shook. Then she just kept on (talking) like she had been bottling it all up for so long.” Hudson said she then called the toll-free State Police child abuse hotline, after sending the children back to their classrooms. All three children said when they returned home from school, a few minutes after 4 p.m., police cars arrived at their home.
Benton Detective Kory Bauer said he arrived on the scene and found all three children scared and confused. He took them all to the Benton Police Department for questioning when the allegations against Garcia were made.
After police contacted Garcia, he voluntarily drove to the Benton Police Department, but at that time he was unaware of the children’s allegations, the defense told the jury repeatedly.
During the investigation of Garcia, the police also arrested the mother for not reporting the abuse to authorities. All three children have since been living in foster homes.
The oldest girl told police that she was sexually assaulted only once, when she went into Garcia’s bedroom to ask about playing a Nintendo Gameboy. She said Garcia told her to sit on the bed and play the game, but he kept distracting her before eventually pulling off all her clothing.
The oldest girl said her brother and younger sister eventually told her that Garcia had been sexually molesting them. The oldest then wrote a letter to their mother and the two others signed the note. After giving it to their mother, the oldest girl said her mother talked with Garcia and the assaults stopped — for a little while.
“They started getting privileges after they came out of (Garcia’s) room,” the oldest said. “They would get to go play video games or get on the computer.”
After Garcia began molesting them again, the children said, they wrote another note to their mother. This time, the oldest said that Garcia came home angry and made her leave the room where her brother and sister where.
“I heard him yell ‘Have I ever done anything to you?’ and my sister said ‘No,’” the oldest said. “I was so angry because (Garcia) acted like he didn’t do anything. I remember (my brother) told mother that (Garcia) was sexually abusing him, and he was jumping up and down later because he thought (Garcia) was going to jail.”
She said Garcia then came home and whipped the boy with a belt while daring the boy to jump up and dance around. Garcia reportedly also told the children: “What happens at the house, stays at the house.”
When asked during testimony how she feels about being in foster care and not seeing their mother, the oldest said she missed her mother but was mad at her because she didn’t believe any of the children when they had told her what was happening.
Attorney Steve Smith, representing Garcia, immediately questioned the oldest girl about the possibility of her making the whole story up. The defense continuously questioned all the children’s motives and insisted the children were lying because Garcia was considered too much of a disciplinarian.
When the boy testified on Tuesday, prosecutors asked him whether the man he accused of raping him was in the courtroom. The boy glanced around the courtroom and at first said no. But when Garcia was asked to stand up, the boy did not utter a word but shook his head yes. A few minutes later, prosecutors asked the judge for a recess because the boy could not speak or answer questions.
When the boy returned, he told the jury that he was first molested inside a truck when he was 4 or 5 years old. He said Garcia targeted him often and once even raped him and his sister in the laundry room while they were side by side.
On Wednesday, several doctors from Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock and employees of the Arkansas State Crime Lab took the stand. It was discovered that a comforter on the boy’s bed had Garcia’s DNA on it. In the same spot with with Garcia’s DNA, that investigators said was sperm, were skin cells from one of the children.
The trial ended with testimony from the foster parent, who has been taking care of all three children.
The foster parent told the jury that the oldest girl usually stays in her room by herself and often feels that she is a burden and is in a depressed state. She said the boy always stands and walks “as if he has the world’s weight on his shoulders” and has to be constantly reminded to stand proudly. The foster parent said the youngest girl has a lot of anger at both Garcia and at her own mother but also has a lot of fear.
When the jury’s decision was announced, Garcia put his head in his hands. At the same time, the children sat with their foster parent in the courtroom, watching Garcia. The boy’s face turned from a look of fear and a smile slowly crept upon his face, as his sisters hugged each other tearfully.
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Razorbacks
