‘Predator’ pleads, sentenced to prison
A Level 4 registered sex offender, classified as a “sexually violent predator,” who was found living with four juvenile relatives earlier this year, was sentenced to six years in prison Monday after pleading guilty to felony charges.
Billy Don Love, 56, who has remained in custody since his last arrest Feb. 11, was set to stand trial Thursday on two counts of failure to comply with sex offender registration and reporting requirements, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison, but opted to plead guilty on both
counts during a pretrial hearing Monday and was sentenced to six years on each count, to run concurrently.
Love was previously convicted on Jan. 17,
2012, of failure to register as a sex offender and sentenced to seven years in prison, but was later paroled. He was also previously convicted of a felony count of second-degree battery on Jan. 22,
1996, involving a 22-month-old victim and was sentenced to one year in jail.
According to the Arkansas State Sex Offender Protocol Training Manual, a Level 4 sex offender is considered a sexually violent predator “who has been adjudicated guilty of a sex offense or acquitted on the grounds of mental disease or defect of a sex offense that makes the person likely to engage in predatory sex offenses. The designation indicates the highest and most visible means of community notification is required.”
A probable cause affidavit for his first arrest said that, on Jan. 23, Hot Springs police Detective Brian Branstetter received information Love was living in a residence on Potter Street. A compliance check was conducted and Love was found at the residence alone with a 14-year-old male relative.
The affidavit said detectives had advised Love previously on Oct. 24, 2019, he was not allowed to live at the Potter Street residence because there were three juvenile males and one juvenile female living there. He was told he had until Oct. 29 to move out and he reportedly moved to a residence in the 5000 block of Spring Street.
Love told Branstetter on Jan. 23 that “instead of being homeless” he had chosen to move back in with his relative, including the four juveniles, and had been living there again for about a month. Branstetter told Love he has to report any change of address within three days and cannot be alone with children and Love admitted he knew that.
Love was released on a $3,500 bond on Feb. 3, but was arrested again on Feb. 11 after Branstetter called Love on the phone. He asked Love where he was staying and Love initially told him he was staying at a homeless camp inside the city limits. Pressed for details about the location, Love changed his story and said he was staying at a camp near Jessieville.
“After a short conversation,” Love admitted to Branstetter he was staying with another relative at a residence on Cedarglades Road which was within 2,000 feet of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, in violation of the restrictions of his sex offender status, so he was arrested again.