A Hot Springs man was sentenced to the maximum of 20 years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty in Garland County Circuit Court to groping an 11-year-old girl, the Hot Springs Sentinel-Record reported.
Milton Harvey Peebles III, 57, who has remained jailed since his arrest last year, was set to stand trial Wednesday but opted instead to plead guilty to second-degree sexual assault and to allow a jury to decide his sentence.
After hearing testimony from the victim, her mother, the investigating Hot Springs police detective and an analyst from the state crime lab, the nine-woman, three-man jury only deliberated about 15 minutes before recommending the maximum sentence of 20 years and a fine of $15,000.
Peebles also faces 67 felony counts of distributing, possessing or viewing of matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child. His attorney, Mark Fraiser, filed a motion to sever the child pornography charges from the assault charge, which was granted by Judge John Homer Wright.
A trial date on the those counts, which carry a sentence of up to 670 years in prison, has not been set yet.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the victim's mother told investigators in 2016 that her daughter, who was 11 years old at the time, said Peebles had been grabbing her buttocks while hugging her, in exchange for candy.
That same day, detectives spoke with Peebles at his residence and he admitted to purposely touching the girl's buttocks while hugging her, the affidavit said. He told them he had developed a physical attraction to the young girl.
Peebles also admitted to taking pictures of her in a bathing suit, authorities said.