Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Sherwood rapist handed 60 years

Defendant a 31-time felon, jury hears

- JOHN LYNCH

A 42-year-old Sherwood man, whom prosecutor­s called a “career criminal” for his 30 felony conviction­s, was sentenced to 60 years in prison Wednesday for his 31st felony, the Dec. 8 rape of a neighbor.

The eight women and four men on the jury deliberate­d less than 40 minutes to deliver their verdict to Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims, finding Jason Hoyle guilty as charged with rape.

Deputy prosecutor Jacob DeYoung called the crime “vicious” and a “heinous and savage attack” on the 25-yearold woman at Hoyle’s home.

Her three children were in the next room when Hoyle raped her, he said. The woman told police she’d met Hoyle that same day. They both lived in the mobile-home park at 3513 Hollmore, a few blocks north of East Kiehl Avenue, that has more than a dozen trailer homes.

Jurors also spent about 40 minutes deciding on a 60-year sentence for Hoyle. The Class Y felony carries a potential life sentence. Hoyle will have to serve 42 years before he can apply for parole.

Prosecutor­s had called for a stiff sentence for the defendant, a parolee who raped the woman less than two weeks after he was given probation on a methamphet­amine conviction.

“Ten days he made it on probation,” deputy prosecutor Melissa Brown told jurors. “He doesn’t know how to be a productive member of society. He doesn’t know how to follow the law.”

Though Hoyle’s family and friends blamed his legal problems on his long-standing drug addiction, Brown told jurors that Hoyle’s been given multiple chances to change his life and overcome his drug problems.

“People have been trying to help him since 1994,” the year he was sentenced to a prison drug-treatment pro- gram, Brown said.

She read off each of Hoyle’s conviction­s, beginning with burglary at age 16 in 1989 and including forgery, theft, failure to appear in court, drug possession, theft by receiving, terroristi­c threatenin­g and domestic battering.

Hoyle, who did not testify, was sentenced to prison in 2007, but he returned to committing drug crimes almost immediatel­y, she said. Brown told the jury that he went back to prison for a 2011 drug conviction, but authoritie­s gave him another chance last year at turning his life around when he was allowed to plead guilty to the drug charges in exchange for probation.

“They gave him a chance,” she said. “It didn’t work.”

Friends, including several of his neighbors, described Hoyle as an upbeat and cheerful presence in the trailer park who was always willing to help out with chores and do odd jobs around the property. Two of his friends said that if Hoyle knew someone was hungry, he would take them food from his church.

Defense attorney Cheryl Barnard asked jurors to both recognize Hoyle’s long-standing battle to overcome addiction and to see him as someone “redeemable” with good qualities that could still contribute to society.

“Drug addiction is a disease, and like other diseases, it can’t be easily cured,” she said. “See him as a he is, a human being, and go back and … exercise mercy,” she said.

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