Man gets six years for shooting
A former Hot Springs man who accidentally shot a 13-year-old girl in the leg last spring while “playing around” with an AR-15 rifle was sentenced to six years in prison late Wednesday after a one-day trial.
A Garland County Circuit Court jury took less than 30 minutes to find Jesse Alan Flemister, 21, who now lists a Texarkana address, guilty of second-degree battery, a felony punishable by up to six years in prison, with a felony firearm enhancement which can add up to an additional 15 years to the sentence.
After deliberating further, the jury recommended a sentence of one year in prison on the battery and five years on the firearm enhancement, which automatically run consecutively, for a total of six years.
Garland County Deputy Prosecutor Kara
Petro, who represented the state along with Deputy Prosecutor Shana Alexander, said Thursday Flemister received the maximum sentence he could have received on the battery, anyway, with the enhancement added, noting “it was the appropriate sentence” under the circumstances.
According to the affidavit, on April 10, 2016, around 6:45 p.m., Hot Springs police Officer Chase Ogden responded to 116 Hillsdale Terrace in reference to a shooting and located a 13-yearold female with a gunshot wound to her left leg. Witnesses at the scene said Flemister was playing with an AR-15 rifle and accidentally fired it one time, striking the girl in the leg.
The victim was transported to CHI St. Vincent Hospital Hot Springs and then airlifted to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock in critical condition. She underwent surgery shortly after the shooting.
“This was a very serious injury,” Petro said, noting the bullet struck the femur in the girl’s thigh and traveled into her stomach, with no exit wound. She said doctors had to remove part of the girl’s colon and urinary tract and she was in a wheelchair for six weeks and on crutches for 14 weeks after that and is receiving ongoing treatment in Dallas.
Petro said at the time of the incident Flemister, who had just turned 20, was dating the victim’s older sister, 17, even though “he wasn’t supposed to be around her.” She said Flemister and the sister went to pick up the victim after school and they went back to the girls’ residence.
“Within 15 minutes of getting there, he had got the rifle and was playing around, taking the clip in and out,” she said, noting Flemister had been drinking and smoking marijuana just prior to the incident.
She said Flemister’s attorney had argued it should be third-degree battery, a misdemeanor, involving “negligence” on Flemister’s part, but Petro said she argued Flemister’s actions were “clearly reckless” which qualified it as felony battery and the jury agreed.
“The jury made the right decision,” she said.