LONOKE — A jury found a Cabot man guilty of rape Thursday and sentenced him to 13 years in state prison.
Roger Lemaster, 55, was accuse of raping a Cabot woman when she was a child. The victim, now 18, said Lemaster performed oral sex on her and forced her to perform oral sex between the time she was 7 and 11.
Lemaster, husband of former Cabot Alderman Becky Lemaster, was arrested and charged with rape in September 2009, when the victim told her mother about the rapes.
Defense attorney David Cannon said the victim was lying and getting lost as she recounted the rape, saying she used the words “every time,” “sometimes,” and “one time” in her handwritten police statement, taped interview and testimony in court.
But Lonoke County Prosecuting Attorney Will Feland and deputy prosecutor Rachel McWhorter said the victim had no motives for lying.
“She wasn’t going to tell anyone, until her momma asked her outright,” Felandsaid in his closing statement.
After about two hours of deliberating, the jury came back at 5:10 p.m. and announced its guilty verdict.
Lemaster’s eyes widened and he began to shake with tears. He held his face in his hands and softly said, “My God.” It was the first time he spoke during the trial.
Lemaster will be eligible for parole after serving 70 percent of his sentence, though Cannon, his attorney, told the jury before sentencing that most cases like Lemaster’s do not make parole.
The jury returned shortly before 6 p.m. with the 13-year sentence, and officers escorted Lemaster out of the courtroom.
McWhorter said she commended the jury for doing “a wonderful job.”
“I think it was fair and just,” she said.
Cannon, Lemaster’s defense attorney, left the courtroom right after the sentencing.
Lemaster’s son, Kenneth Lemaster, 31, is serving a sentence for two rape charges and one second-degree sexual-assault charge.
Arkansas, Pages 20 on 06/26/2010