A 51-year-old child molester in North Little Rock has accepted a 15-year prison sentence for failing to tell authorities where he was living and disclose the death of his wife of 18 months.
Sentencing papers filed on Monday show Troy Douglas Hatfield pleaded guilty in Pulaski County Circuit Court to abuse of a corpse and failure to register, charges that together carry up to 45 years in prison for repeat offenders like Hatfield who have more than four felony convictions.
Details of the sex offense were not available but Hatfield has been required to register his home address with authorities since October 2009.
Required to report to North Little Rock police every six months, Hatfield failed to show up in October 2020, and police couldn't find him at his listed residence, 823 W. 45th St., during a November 2020 visit.
About a week later, the landlord looking to collect unpaid rent went into the residence, telling investigators he had not been able to reach Hatfield for at least seven months.
In the bedroom, he found Hatfield bleeding heavily from an injury to his left arm. The man called for help, and police arrived to find Hatfield in bed, with a deep cut to his left arm and holding a straight razor in his right hand.
Hatfield told officers he wanted to kill himself and that his only family was his wife as he patted the blankets in bed next to him. Officers had to forcibly take the razor from him.
Police lifted the sheets and found the decaying remains of Jessica Hatfield, formerly Jessica Machelle Anderson. She "just died," Troy Hatfield said, telling police he had not harmed her. There was also a note on the blankets stating that Jessica Hatfield had died in September 2020, about two months earlier.
Authorities were unable to determine how she died. Records show the couple married in May 2019. Hatfield was arrested about six months later and has been jailed ever since. This will be his third prison incarceration.
In July 2015, Hatfield was sentenced to his second prison term -- a two-year sentence -- after pleading guilty in Benton County for failure to register. Court records show Hatfield had been living in Lowell but cut off his ankle monitor, which he had been required to wear for drunken driving, and left town. He had not registered in four months.
Court records show that Hatfield pleaded guilty in Washington County in October 2009 to separate instances of second-degree sexual assault of a child, failure to appear, commercial burglary and theft in exchange for a sentence of 18 years in prison with another 22 years suspended.