FAYETTEVILLE -- A Fayetteville man, who claimed his mental retardation should absolve him of criminal culpability, was found guilty Thursday of sexually abusing one child and raping another seven years ago.
Mario Deshaun Thompson, 26, was found guilty in Washington County Circuit Court of two counts of second-degree sexual abuse and one count of rape. The jury recommended 10 years at the Arkansas Department of Correction on each sexual abuse charge and 25 years on the rape charge.
Legal Lingo
Not Guilty By Reason Of Mental Disease Or Defect
A defense asserted by an accused in a prosecution to avoid liability for the commission of a crime because, at the time, the person didn’t appreciate the nature or quality or wrongfulness of the acts. The most common variation is cognitive insanity. Under the test for cognitive insanity, a defendant must have been so impaired by a mental disease or defect at the time of the act that he or she didn’t know the nature or quality of the act, or, if the defendant did know the nature or quality of the act, he or she didn’t know the act was wrong.
Source: thefreedictionary.c…
Circuit Judge William Storey set sentencing for 11 a.m. today.
"He has a mental disease and a propensity to prey on small children. He's every parent's worst nightmare," Chreea Booher, deputy prosecutor, told jurors. "This doesn't mean he should be let go to do more harm; it means that, more than ever, he needs to be locked up. He needs to be removed from society so he can't harm any more young girls."
The abuse came to light after one of the girls in January told her mother Thompson raped her in a dressing room at the Jones Center in Springdale when she was 9 or 10 years old.
The other girl's mother contacted police after Thompson sent her an apparent apology via Facebook. The girl said she was 7 when Thompson touched her in a day care bathroom and again when he took her to an abandoned house. Both incidents were in Fayetteville.
Thompson was 18 or 19 years old at the time.
There was no physical evidence because the incidents happened so long ago, but both girls testified at trial. Thompson, who babysat both girls, didn't testify in his defense.
The defense argued Thompson has an incurable mental defect, mental retardation, that rendered him incapable of appreciating the criminality of his actions or conforming his behavior to the law.
"Who but an unadulterated idiot would email a mother if you knew what you had done was wrong," James Evans, Thompson's lawyer, told the jury. "What the state has proved is Mario doesn't have the sense to get in out of the rain."
Dr. Richard Back, a Fayetteville psychologist, told jurors Thompson is mentally retarded with an intelligence quotient of 53. An IQ less than 70 indicates mental retardation, Back said.
Thompson functions at the level of a 9-year-old, according to Back.
Back said Thompson failed a court competency test, meaning he didn't understand the legal proceeding against him.
"When you have an IQ of 53, you just don't understand a lot of things," Back said.
Evans said a rambling statement Thompson gave to police was telling about his mental condition.
"His statement gives you an idea of how his brain functions: not very well," Evans said. "It gives you a little bit of insight."
Evans said Thompson needed to be committed to the State Hospital for treatment until he no longer posed a danger.
But, Dr. Michael Simon, a psychologist at the Arkansas State Hospital, examined Thompson and concluded he was mildly retarded, with an IQ in the mid-60s, but fit to stand trial. Simon said Thompson is capable of conforming his behavior to the law and can appreciate the criminality of his actions. Nurses at the hospital told Simon that Thompson appeared normal during his eight-week stay.
Booher told jurors Thompson apologized to the younger girl's mother because he understood what he did was wrong and he had a guilty conscience.
NW News on 06/13/2014