Arkansas man gets 20-year term for 2015 rape of 12-year-old girl

HOT SPRINGS -- A man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in Garland County Circuit Court to a felony count of rape involving a 12-year-old girl in 2015.

Shawn Michael Hulsey, 22, of Hot Springs was set to stand trial Oct. 4, but pleaded guilty the day before. He was sentenced Oct. 7. Hulsey will have to register as a sex offender upon his release.

Hulsey was arrested April 15, 2015. He initially pleaded innocent Aug. 3, 2015. On Jan. 4, 2016, Hulsey changed his plea to innocent by reason of mental disease or defect, and the trial was postponed until a mental evaluation could be completed. Hulsey was found fit to proceed March 14, 2016. His court-appointed attorney, Mark Fraiser, filed a motion requesting a second mental evaluation, but it was denied.

According to an affidavit, on Feb. 6, 2015, a woman filed a report with the Garland County sheriff's office stating she had left her juvenile daughter with a friend and later went to check on her at the friend's residence. When she walked in, she saw a man, later identified as Hulsey, sitting on the sofa next to her daughter, who was leaning on him.

The mother noted Hulsey was wearing only a pair of shorts, and her daughter was wearing only panties and a shirt, the affidavit said. The woman said she thought that her daughter had been sexually assaulted. The child was examined at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock.

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State Desk on 10/20/2017

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