TEXARKANA -- A trial has been scheduled for January for a man facing charges of rape, kidnapping, burglary and theft in an attack on a 15-year-old girl in September.
David Aaron Love, 24, was scheduled to appear in Miller County circuit court Tuesday, but the case has been continued to mid-November. A notation on the continuance document notes a pretrial hearing Jan. 5 and jury selection Jan. 25.
Love is accused of breaking into the teen's home shortly before 10 a.m. Sept. 1 while her parents were at work, according to a probable-cause affidavit. The girl was interviewed that afternoon at the Texarkana Children's Advocacy Center.
The girl reported she noticed the back door was unlocked as she walked to the bathroom about 9:45 a.m. but thought her mother had simply forgotten to lock it, the affidavit said. While in the bathroom, the girl heard noises but attributed the sound to the television, a report said.
The girl said Love, who is a relative but not a member of her immediate family, was standing in her room when she returned from the bathroom. Love grabbed the girl and began choking her from behind causing her to nearly lose consciousness, the affidavit said.
The affidavit said Love pushed the girl into her parents' bedroom and put a jacket over her head while assaulting her. The girl said Love assaulted her again in her bedroom and in the living room before tying the girl's hands and legs and gagging her, according to the affidavit.
The girl reported that Love forced her to walk to her parents' spare car, according to the affidavit. Love forced her to put on a mask and sunglasses and used shirts he found in the house to tie the girl to the car's interior.
The girl said Love drove around aimlessly for some time and "didn't appear to know where he was going" before returning again to the house, the affidavit states. Love left the girl tied up in the vehicle and walked to the rear of her residence.
The girl freed herself and ran to a neighbor's house where police were called. Love left in the vehicle and was arrested the next day in Sevier County, the affidavit said. He is being held in the Miller County jail on charges of rape, kidnapping, residential burglary and theft of property with bail set at $250,000.
Conviction for theft holds a prison sentence of up to six years and a fine up to $10,000. A residential-burglary conviction holds a sentence of five to 20 years and a fine up to $15,000, and kidnapping and rape are both punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in an Arkansas prison.