BENTONVILLE -- A Siloam Springs man was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.
Gerardo Gomez-Jimenez, 33, pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexual assault in the second degree, a Class B felony, punishable with a prison sentence of five to 20 years. The plea was under an agreement his attorney, Scott McElveen, reached with a deputy prosecutor.
Gomez-Jimenez was arrested Nov. 5, 2012.
He was originally charged with rape, a Class Y felony, but agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge.
Springdale police referred the case to Derek Spicer, an investigator for the Siloam Springs police, according to court documents.
Gomez-Jimenez told Spicer he began dating the girl when she was 10 and first had sex with her when she was 11.
Circuit Judge Robin Green accepted the plea agreement and Gomez-Jimenez's guilty plea.
He was sentenced to 15 years in the Arkansas Department of Correction. He'll have to abide by a suspended sentence for five years after his release from prison.
He'll be required to register as a sex offender. Gomez-Jimenez was ordered to undergo sex offender treatment.
He was ordered not to have contact with his girl and cannot have unsupervised contact with any juvenile.
NW News on 09/04/2014