Centerton man sentenced to 55 years in prison

 Christopher Thornsberry
Christopher Thornsberry

BENTONVILLE -- A Centerton man was sentenced to 55 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a teen.

Christopher Allen Thornsberry, 29, of Centerton pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexual assault and two counts of terroristic threatening. He was charged as a habitual offender.

The plea was reached under an agreement Thornsberry's attorney John Kennedy made with Carrie Dobbs, deputy prosecutor.

Thornsberry was arrested Oct. 31, 2015, in connection with the sexual assault charge. He admitted in court to sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.

The girl provided details of the assault during an interview at the Children's Advocacy Center, according to court documents.

While Thornsberry was an inmate in the Benton County Jail in November 2015 he was taken to Northwest Medical Center-Bentonville, according to court documents. Thornsberry threatened to slit the throat of two nurses who were trying to care for him, according to court documents.

Circuit Judge Robin Green accepted the plea agreement and Thornsberry's guilty plea.

He will have to serve 15 years before he will be eligible for parole. He received 808 days of credit for the time he spent in the Benton County Jail awaiting his trial.

Thornsberry must abide by a suspended sentence agreement for six years after his release from prison.

He'll be required to register as a sex offender and must complete the prison's sex offender and anger management programs or similar ones after his release from prison.

He was ordered not to have any contact with the teen and he cannot have any unsupervised contact with any minor.

NW News on 01/17/2018

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