A 72-year-old Prairie Grove man was convicted Thursday of kidnapping, raping and sexually assaulting a 9-yearold Westville, Okla., girl.
Eugene McCarty was sentenced to 25 years at the Arkansas Department of Correction on the rape charge, 10 years on the kidnapping charge and 10 years and a $5,000 fine on the sexual abuse charge.
Washington County Circuit Judge William Storey ordered the rape and kidnapping terms to run consecutively. The sexual assault term will run concurrently.
“What happened is horrible, it’s heinous, it isn’t right. This girl never had a break in life,” Storey said. “She will never fully recover, and that’s the sad part of this case.”
Prosecutors contend McCarty took the girl to his home July 3 and wouldn’t return her to the mother’s home. The girl’s mother had no car but was able to get a ride to McCarty’s home July 4. The mother told jurors she found McCarty forcing her daughter to perform sex acts in a bedroom.
The mother said she didn’t call authorities at the time but later called police in Oklahoma.
The mother pleaded guilty in November to permitting the abuse of a minor because she didn’t make an earlier effort to locate the girl and didn’t call police. She was sentenced to prison and ordered to have no contact with her daughter.
“This case is about the vulnerability of a 9-year-old girl from a bad home,” Amy Driver, a deputy prosecuting attorney, told jurors in her closing argument. “She was the perfect victim.”
The defense contended the mother and others lied about the allegations against McCarty and coached the girl to testify against him.