HOT SPRINGS -- A former youth pastor accused of raping two teenage girls in 2014 in Hot Springs was sentenced to 80 years in prison Tuesday after a hearing in Garland County Circuit Court.
An eight-man, four-woman jury on March 30 found Andrew Lee Jackson, 31, who lists a White Hall address, guilty of two counts of rape after a four-day trial.
The jury recommended a sentence of 40 years on each count, and Judge Marcia Hearnsberger ruled the two sentences are to run consecutively for a total of 80 years. Jackson will have to serve 70 percent of the sentence, or about 56 years, before he is eligible for parole.
Garland County Prosecuting Attorney Michelle Lawrence said Wednesday that Jackson's attorney, Shane Ethridge, had filed a brief asking for the sentences to be run concurrently, arguing that since the two cases were consolidated into one trial the sentences should be, too.
Lawrence said she filed a brief in response arguing that even though they tried the cases together, they were still separate cases involving separate victims. She said if they had argued against consolidating the cases and tried them separately and he was convicted in one case, they could have presented his conviction and testimony from the other victim at the second trial.
She said Ethridge also had argued the range of punishment given to the jury was 10 to 40 years or life and that if jurors had wanted to give him a life sentence they could have, but Lawrence noted Hearnsberger is not bound by the jury's recommendation on sentence.
"We thought this was a fitting sentence and that it befit the defendant," she said. "There were two separate victims, and he had an ongoing sexual relationship with both of them over a period of time. We were pleased [Hearnsberger] made the decision she did."
The jury heard testimony from both victims, Garland County sheriff's investigators, the girls' therapist, Jackson, his wife, and his pastor from childhood during the guilt phase. Prosecutors also presented cellphone evidence involving text messages sent between Jackson and the two victims that corroborated the victims' allegations.
While the charge involving the 13-year-old was based solely on her age at the time, Lawrence said she used a different approach with the 16-year-old, arguing Jackson was essentially her guardian because she was living with Jackson and his wife at the time the rapes occurred. Under the law, he was guilty of rape if the victim was younger than 18.
According to the affidavit, in November 2014, Garland County sheriff 's investigator Mike Wright began an investigation into rape allegations involving the 13-year-old and her youth pastor, identified as Jackson.
The victim was interviewed Nov. 7, 2014, at the Cooper-Anthony Mercy Child Advocacy Center and disclosed she had sexual relations with Jackson three different times between August and October at Jackson's home.
She told investigators she would often spend the night at the Jackson home, sleeping in the living room with Jackson and his wife on a sectional sofa separated into three pieces. She said Jackson had sex with her on the sofa while his wife was asleep on another part of the sofa.
Jackson was arrested Dec. 22, 2014, and charged with three counts of rape.
The victim's sister, 16, also was interviewed at that time but initially denied any sexual contact had occurred. The sisters shared a cellphone and had both communicated with Jackson on the phone. In reviewing text messages from the phone, investigators felt confident the 16-year-old also was a victim.
On Sept. 21, 2016, the sister was interviewed again at Cooper-Anthony and disclosed she had sexual intercourse with Jackson "at least 10 times," beginning in August 2014 and continuing through October 2014.
She stated the rapes occurred in a bedroom at Jackson's home and the first time he had covered her mouth while he raped her. She punched him at one point during the rape trying to get him off her. She said Jackson threatened her, telling her if she told anyone he would burn up her family's house with her and her family inside.
State Desk on 04/13/2017