FORT SMITH -- People in the Staples parking lot who saw a 54-year-old woman being forced at gunpoint into her car tried to ask if she was all right. She just shook her head "no."
Her ordeal of being abducted, driven across the state, sexually assaulted and robbed at gunpoint ended with 37-year-old convicted rapist Ardwin Frank Sylvester of Fort Smith being arrested in Sevier County, police say.
On Wednesday, Sylvester pleaded innocent in Sebastian County Circuit Court to charges of aggravated robbery, rape, kidnapping and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Circuit Judge Stephen Tabor appointed the public defender to represent Sylvester and set his bail at $275,000.
Sylvester has been convicted of 11 felonies since 1997, including a 2000 conviction for rape for which he was sentenced in circuit court in Fort Smith to 20 years in prison, according to court records.
The Van Buren woman told police that she had gone to Staples in the 5700 block of Rogers Avenue about 11 a.m. June 24 to buy ink cartridges. As she was getting back into her light-blue Ford Escape, a man came up behind her with a gun, demanded her car keys and forced her into the vehicle.
In a statement to police after Sylvester's arrest, she said there were several people in the parking lot, and she could see some of them writing down her license number as the car left the lot.
A manager at Staples saw the abduction and called 911, according to the police report. However, the report said, no officers were dispatched to intercept the Ford Escape. A "be on the lookout" was issued.
It was not until a message was received from Little River County about the woman's escape that anyone with the Fort Smith Police Department was aware of the kidnapping, the report said.
Sylvester drove himself and the woman south out of town on U.S. 71, according to reports. He told her where they were going, she said, but she didn't seem to understand, figuring they were going to Texas. He said he would let her go later, she said.
On the road, she told police, he took money out of her purse and stuffed it into his pocket and wanted her to give him the PIN numbers for her credit cards. Also along the way, she wrote, he sexually assaulted her and forced her to touch him.
They arrived in Ashdown in the early afternoon where they stopped at a Burger King restaurant before Sylvester pulled into an E-Z Mart to refuel, reports say. The woman told police that Sylvester took her car keys and cellphone, and warned her not to try to run or he'd shoot her. He stuck a Beretta semiautomatic pistol in his belt and went into the store to pay for the gas, reports say.
While Sylvester pumped the gas, the woman told police, a truck occupied by two men pulled up next to her car, and she decided to make her escape. She jumped from the car, ran into the store, and told the people inside that she had been kidnapped and to call the police, reports say.
Sylvester fled in the car and drove past an unmarked Arkansas State Police car, reports say. The police officer gave chase. During the lengthy chase, Sylvester threw the gun out of the car, according to police. He finally pulled over and surrendered, reports say.
Metro on 07/20/2014