HOT SPRINGS — A Garland County Circuit Court jury took seven minutes Wednesday to convict a Hot Springs man of rape in a 2013 home invasion case and later sentenced him to life in prison after a one-day trial.
The nine-man, three-woman jury deliberated for about 23 minutes before recommending the maximum sentence for James Eugene Sharp, 33, after hearing testimony from a 12-year-old girl whose 2016 rape case against Sharp is pending. DNA from the second case led to Sharp’s arrest in the 2013 rape.
“This was every woman’s worst nightmare and it happened here in Garland County,” said deputy prosecutor Kara Petro, who represented the state along with chief deputy prosecutor Joe Graham.
“It gives you chills thinking about it,” Petro added, saying the victim, who was 46 at the time, was a stranger to Sharp when he entered her apartment through a window in the middle of the night Sept. 25, 2013, and “she woke up with him standing over her with his hand covering her mouth.”
The victim said the man threatened to kill her if she screamed or resisted. Sharp said the victim consented to the sexual encounter but “then said he didn’t remember having sex with her,” Petro said.
Sharp was arrested May 10, 2016, in the rape of the 12-year-old and had remained in custody since then without bail. Graham said Sharp is scheduled for trial on that rape charge Aug. 15 and is set for trial Oct. 23 on additional felony charges of video voyeurism involving the 12-year-old and domestic battery involving his wife.