Hot Springs jury acquits man charged in rape of girl, 5

HOT SPRINGS — A Hot Springs man charged with three counts of rape and one count of second-degree sexual assault, all involving the same 5-year-old girl, was found innocent of all charges Thursday after a two-day trial.

Raul Ernesto Castillo, 36, originally faced four counts of rape, but prosecutors amended one of the counts to the lesser sexual assault charge Tuesday during a pretrial hearing.

The nine-woman, threeman jury deliberated for about three hours Thursday, not including a one-hour break for lunch, before sending a note to Judge John Homer Wright indicating they were at an impasse and couldn’t reach a decision, Graham said.

Wright instructed the jurors that in the event of a mistrial, the case would have to be heard again by another jury and encouraged them to try to reach a decision. Graham said the jurors went back and deliberated for about another hour and 10 minutes before returning the innocent verdict.

“We think the jury got it wrong and we think we just got a bad jury,” chief deputy prosecutor Joe Graham said Friday. “They made a decision completely contrary to all the evidence that was presented.”

He said the jury had a “credible child victim who testified well as to exactly what happened, and we had a man who admitted to everything” when questioned by Hot Springs police in a recorded interview.

A call to Castillo’s attorney, Robert Tellez of North Little Rock, was not returned Friday.

Castillo testified Thursday and denied all the allegations against him, saying police had obtained a false confession from him.