Gentry man sentenced to life for rape
BENTONVILLE — A Gentry man was sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a teenage girl. Donald Adams, 44, was charged with rape, sexual assault and misdemeanor battery. It took jurors almost two hours Thursday to find Adams guilty of the charges.
Prosecutors didn’t present any witnesses for the sentencing.
Adams took the stand Thursday afternoon for sentencing and maintained his innocence. “I don’t feel my life is worthless that I can’t be redeemed,” Adams told jurors.
The panel recommended Adams serve life for the rape and 20 years for the sexual assault. Jurors recommended the sentences be served consecutively. The jury recommended Adams serve one year in jail for the battery charge.
Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren sentenced Adams to life for the rape and 20 years for sexual assault. He ordered the two sentences be served consecutively.
The judge sentenced Adams to one year in jail for the misdemeanor battery but ordered the sentence be served concurrently with the other.
The victim testified Adams once shot her in the back with a BB gun because she couldn’t move a television antenna outside.
She called 911 on Jan. 26, 2018, after Adams beat her with a violin bow.
Adams was arrested for misdemeanor battery, but the investigation into the sex crimes began after she told a deputy Adams sexually abused her.
She told jurors Adams raped her the first time a few months after she turned 13.
She’s now 18 years old and changed her name and identifies as a male.
Karren ruled the victim’s gender wouldn’t be an issue in the trial.
“He asked me not to tell anyone and promised it wouldn’t happen again,” the victim told jurors as he testified Wednesday morning. “But, it did.”
Adams showed no reaction as he sat across the courtroom and watched as his accuser described details of the abuse.
The teen testified the abuse became more frequent at 15 years old. “It made me feel kind of distance,” the teen said of the abuse. “After a while, I started separating myself from what was going on.”
Adams also testified in his defense during the guilt or innocence phase of the trial.
“How do you feel?” Paul Younger, his attorney, asked.
“Scared as hell,” he replied.
Adams admitted losing control of his temper and hitting the teen with the violin bow. Adams testified he’s an alcoholic and had been drinking before hitting the teen.
Adams admitted putting the teen on birth control but was concerned after hearing about one of her 14-year-old classmates being pregnant.
Adams said a sex toy deputies found in his bedroom belonged to a former girlfriend.
Prosecutors presented evidence the teen’s blood was found on the sex toy. Adams couldn’t explain how the blood was found on the item.
Younger asked Adams if he had ever raped the teen.
“It never happened,” Adams said. “I would never do something like that.”
“Did it happen a single time?” Younger asked.
“Absolutely not,” Adams replied.
Tyler Williams, deputy prosecutor, urged jurors to find Adams guilty of the charges. Williams told the panel Adams treated his victim like an object for his own sexual gratification.
Younger admitted his client had physically abused the teen and Adams lost his temper and had anger issues. Younger said Adams is also an alcoholic, but said those could be the reasons the teen made false allegations against Adams.
The judge ordered Adams to register as a sex offender. The judge also ordered Adams not to have any contact with the teen.
Adams had also been charged with sexually assaulting another girl, but prosecutors dismissed that felony charge.
“We appreciate the difficult work of our jurors in listening to heartbreaking testimony and wrestling with depressing facts in the process of giving justice to a victim,” chief deputy prosecutor Stuart Cearley said. “I’m thankful for a sentence that recognizes the harm caused to children when adults use them for their own purposes. I’m hopeful that this sentence spares this victim from ever having to talk about her abuse again unless she chooses to do so.”