Man sentenced to 12 years in prison for sexual assault of 9-year-old girl
A former Hot Springs man was sentenced to 12 years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty in Garland County Circuit Court to the sexual assault of a 9-year-old girl in 2019.
Jason Harold Hasley, 23, who now lists a Windsor,
S.C., address, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree sexual assault, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and was sentenced to 12 years while an additional felony charge of endangering the welfare of a minor was withdrawn.
Hasley, who has remained in custody since his arrest on Feb.
6, 2020, on a $100,000 bond, was also ordered to pay a total of $715 in court costs and fees after his release and he will be required to register as a sex offender from now on.
Hasley had pleaded not guilty to the charges on March
11, 2020, in Garland County District Court and a court order barring him from contact with the victim was issued. The case was filed under seal to circuit court on April 7.
The victim’s mother, 36, was arrested May 8, 2020, on two counts of permitting child abuse, each punishable by up to six years in prison. On May 15, she was charged with an additional felony count of first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor, also punishable by up to six years.
She pleaded not guilty to the charges on June 8 and on Dec. 2 a mental evaluation was ordered for her to determine her fitness to proceed with trial. An Act 3 hearing on her fitness to proceed is set for June 7 and a hearing on the admissibility of any statements she made to investigators after her arrest is set for May 11.
Deputy Prosecutor Shana Alexander, who represented the state in the case, told The Sentinel-Record after Hasley’s sentencing the charge involved one occurrence of sexual contact with a 9-year-old girl to which Hasley had confessed.
“He has been fully cooperative in the case against the mother,” she said, both in the criminal charges and with the Department of Human Services case related to the termination of her parental rights.
The victim and another sibling are both in foster care and the mother “has charges related to both of them,” Alexander said, noting she felt it was a fair sentence for Hasley given his cooperation with the investigators and the prosecution.