A 21-year-old Jacksonville man has received a 20-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting a woman while both were patients at The BridgeWay mental health hospital in North Little Rock.
Sentencing papers filed Wednesday show Daetriaun Malike Jones pleaded no contest to second-degree sexual assault, reduced from rape, in exchange for the 20-year term imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson.
Jones was arrested Aug. 13, 2018, at the hospital after the woman told police she had been asleep in her room when she was awakened by Jones sodomizing her with his hand over her mouth.
Questioned by detectives, Jones said he had gone into the woman's room, pulled down her pants and put his "private area" in her "booty" while covering her mouth with his right hand, court filings show. He said he left her room after getting "scared."
Records do not show why Jones was in the hospital, although they reveal that he has a long history of psychiatric hospitalizations, including a previous diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
Jailed since his arrest, he was twice examined by state doctors who determined that he is not mentally ill, with one concluding that Jones' "account of his own psychiatric history was not credible and appeared to be a childish effort to simulate a mental illness."