HOT SPRINGS -- Two 14-year-old boys, convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl earlier this year on the Hot Springs Lakeside school campus, have been sentenced to "an indeterminate amount of time" in the custody of the Department of Human Services' Youth Services Division.
The boys, sentenced Friday in Garland County Juvenile Court, can be held only until they turn 18 because they were sentenced under standard juvenile jurisdiction, Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michelle Lawrence said. For the two to be held until they turn 21, they would have had to have been sentenced under extended juvenile jurisdiction.
The two were sentenced to the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center near Alexander, where they will undergo counseling and a sex-offender assessment.
"With the juvenile system the entire purpose is rehabilitation," Lawrence said. "That is the whole idea behind it, to make sure by the time they turn 18 they are not a criminal anymore.
"I can't say for sure they will be there until they're 18."
Lawrence said the length of time the boys will remain in the center depends upon how they do there.
"If they are compliant and do everything they are supposed to do, they could get out earlier," she said.
According to an affidavit, the victim said she was approached Feb. 24 in the Lakeside Field House by the two boys, who forced her into the girls locker room. They turned off the lights and stood behind her, removed her backpack, held her to prevent her from moving and refused to let her go when she asked.
She said the boys sexually assaulted her as she attempted to break free. After approximately 2 minutes, she said she escaped and fled from the field house.
The boys were arrested Feb. 26.
"We had several other witnesses who corroborated her story," Lawrence said. "There were no eyewitnesses to the incident, but she had disclosed what happened to friends, a pastor and a teacher," Lawrence said of the girl.
State Desk on 06/23/2016