Man gets 20-year term in rape of girl

HOT SPRINGS — A man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday after pleading guilty in Garland County Circuit Court to a felony count of rape involving a 12-year-old girl in 2015.

Shawn Michael Hulsey, 22, of Hot Springs was set to stand trial Oct. 4, but pleaded guilty the day before with sentencing postponed until Friday morning.

Hulsey will have to register as a sex offender upon his release.

Hulsey was arrested April 15, 2015, and released on $25,000 bond July 23, 2015.

He initially pleaded innocent Aug. 3, 2015.

On Jan. 4, 2016, Hulsey changed his plea to innocent by reason of mental disease or defect, and the trial was postponed until a mental evaluation could be completed.

Hulsey was found fit to proceed March 14, 2016. His court-appointed attorney, Mark Fraiser, filed a motion requesting a second mental evaluation but it was denied.

According to an affidavit, on Feb. 6, 2015, a woman filed a report with the Garland County sheriff’s office stating she had left her juvenile daughter with a friend and later went to check on her at the friend’s residence. When she walked in, she saw a man, later identified as Hulsey, sitting on the sofa next to her daughter, who was leaning on him.

The mother noted Hulsey was wearing only a pair of shorts, and her daughter was wearing only panties and a shirt, the affidavit said. The woman said she felt that her daughter had been sexually assaulted.

She took her daughter to a local hospital to be examined and was referred to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, where the exam was conducted.

On Feb. 18, the victim was interviewed by Arkansas Crimes Against Children and said she met up with Hulsey at the mall earlier in the day Feb. 6 and after “hanging out for awhile” he went back with her to the residence, according to the affidavit.

Once there she said he digitally penetrated her and performed oral sex on her, and that he attempted to rape her at one point but she pushed him away, the affidavit said.

The girl said Hulsey was aware she was 12 years old.