Arkansas man who kept girl in shed gets 10 years for sex assault

ASH FLAT -- A Sharp County man who police say kept a runaway teenager locked in a shed for six days last year and repeatedly assaulted her pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault, Sharp County Circuit Court Clerk Tommy Estes said.

Circuit Judge Harold Erwin sentenced Jacob M. Gibson, 22, of Cave City to 10 years in prison, fined him $2,500 and ordered him to pay court costs of $605. Gibson had been charged with three counts of rape, kidnapping and trafficking and had been held in the Sharp County jail in Ash Flat in lieu of a $100,000 bond pending his trial.

Sharp County deputies arrested Gibson at his Brickle Springs Road home in Cave City on Sept. 4 after his mother, Rossann Gibson, told authorities she received a "frantic" call from a 17-year-old girl who was living with her and her son.

Rossann Gibson said she went home and found her son and the girl locked in a shed behind their home.

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Police said Jacob Gibson met the girl while on a trip to Washington state. The girl said she was a runaway and was living "on the street." She returned with Gibson to Arkansas to live with him, police said.

Deputies said Jacob Gibson became enraged Aug. 30 and accused the girl of seeing another man. An arrest affidavit filed in Sharp County Circuit Court by Sharp County Deputy Cody Bailey said Gibson threw the girl in the shed, struck her face with his fists and threatened to "cut her into tiny pieces and scatter her throughout the woods if she couldn't be faithful" to him.

Gibson will be required to register as a sex offender after completing his prison term, authorities said.

State Desk on 01/27/2017

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