Child murderer set for resentencing in Fayetteville

Chris Segerstrom
Chris Segerstrom

FAYETTEVILLE -- A convicted child murderer is set for a resentencing hearing in Washington County Circuit Court on Wednesday, more than 36 years after he was originally sentenced.

Chris Segerstrom was 15 years old July 26, 1986, when he took 4-year-old Barbara Thompson into a wooded area behind the Lewis Plaza Apartments several blocks west of the University of Arkansas. He sexually assaulted her before bashing her head with a 40-pound rock and suffocated her.

Segerstrom, now 51, was convicted of capital murder by a jury in 1987 and sentenced to life at the Arkansas Department of Correction without the possibility of parole. He's been confined ever since then either in prison, at the Arkansas State Hospital or the Washington County Detention Center, where he's been since January 2021.

Segerstrom's murder conviction has never been in jeopardy. But, the U.S. and Arkansas supreme courts in recent years have made a series of rulings juveniles can't be sentenced to life without parole.

Arkansas changed its law to allow life with the possibility of parole after 30 years to comply with the rulings. The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in February 2019 the new law addressing minors who kill doesn't apply retroactively and a new sentencing hearing is required.

In Segerstrom's case, a jury will be empaneled to hear evidence and arguments from both prosecutors and the defense before recommending a sentence to Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay. The hearing is expected to last two or three days. The sentencing range is now 10 to 40 years or life.

"Since they won't hear evidence from the guilt phase of the trial, I have to put on evidence as to what occurred," said Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett. "I don't have to prove the case, but I have to give them an idea of what he did."

Durrett said the amount of time that has passed will make his job harder. Some of the witnesses from Segerstrom's original trial are still around, but others have left the area, making them hard to locate. Some have died.

There are transcripts and exhibits from Segerstrom's original trial Durrett hopes can be used to fill in the missing pieces.

Prosecutors and attorneys for Segerstrom had been arguing about whether Segerstrom is mentally competent to be resentenced since February 2019, when the Arkansas Supreme Court granted Segerstrom a resentencing hearing.

In January 2020, Lindsay ordered Segerstrom committed to the state hospital to restore him to mental competency after a court-ordered mental examination found he was unfit to proceed because of schizophrenia.

After a subsequent competency hearing, Lindsay found Segerstrom fit to proceed in March.

Segerstrom is represented by Kent McLemore and Ben Crabtree, who both have long-standing ties to the case. Crabtree's father, Terry, represented Segerstrom at his original trial, and McLemore was a clerk for Terry Crabtree during the trial.

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