FAYETTEVILLE -- A judge has ordered a mental evaluation for Christopher Segerstrom, who was convicted of murdering a 4-year-old girl more than 30 years ago.
The order delayed a resentencing hearing until the evaluation is complete.
Segerstrom was 15 on July 26, 1986, when, according to investigators, he took Barbara Thompson into a wooded area behind the Lewis Plaza Apartments several blocks west of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. He reportedly assaulted, beat and suffocated the girl.
Segerstrom, now 48, was convicted in 1987 of capital murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in recent years that mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole for youths are unconstitutional, and that the ruling applied retroactively. To comply with the rulings, Arkansas changed its law to allow youths to be sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 30 years. Anyone who was sentenced as a teenager to life in prison without parole had to be resentenced.
Washington County Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay in 2017 denied Segerstrom's motion for a sentencing hearing, saying a hearing wasn't required because the state law applied retroactively.
Because Segerstrom was given credit at his original 1987 sentencing for 11 months of jail time served, he became immediately eligible in 2017 to seek parole. He was denied parole in July 2017.
The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in February that the state law addressing minors convicted of murder doesn't apply retroactively to Segerstrom's case. The court ruled that he has to be allowed a sentencing hearing before a judge or jury at which he can present evidence and testimony in his favor. The sentencing range now is 10 to 40 years, or life with the possibility of parole.
Segerstrom's lawyers said in a recent motion that they reviewed Segerstrom's mental health and other records from the Arkansas Department of Correction, interviewed Segerstrom on numerous occasions and corresponded with him by letter. They questioned Segerstrom's mental fitness to proceed.
Lindsay set a tentative date of Sept. 26 to hear the case, if the mental exam is complete.
Metro on 06/27/2019