Fayetteville jury hears emotional testimony during resentencing hearing for Segerstrom in decades old child murder case

Defense to present case this morning

Chris Segerstrom
Chris Segerstrom

FAYETTEVILLE -- Raw emotion bottled up for more than 35 years spilled over Wednesday in a Washington County courtroom as jurors tasked with resentencing Chris Segerstrom heard evidence about the brutal murder 4-year-old Barbara Thompson.

Segerstrom was 15 on July 26, 1986, when he took Barbara Thompson into a wooded area behind the Lewis Plaza Apartments several blocks west of the University of Arkansas. He sexually assaulted her with a stick before bashing her head with a 40-pound rock, suffocating her and leaving her to die.

Segerstrom, now 51, was convicted of capital murder by a jury in 1987 and sentenced to life in the Arkansas Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole. He's been confined ever since.

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 that 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 to Segerstrom's case and a new sentencing hearing is required.

Russ Cole and Carroll "Arlo" Guthrie, long-retired Fayetteville police officers, fought to maintain their composure as they described responding to a missing child report and finding Barbara Thompson lying dead under a huge rock, her head crushed and stripped of clothing from her waist down. Mike Mitchell, a detective and the crime scene tech at the time, became visibly emotional while explaining to jurors about the graphic pictures he took at the crime scene.

Jena Muddiman, Barbara's mother, wept as she recalled how her daughter told her she loved her on the day she was murdered. Muddiman told jurors about her memories of her daughter and the toll her murder has taken on the family.

"It's been 36 years, but you will see the wounds are still fresh and the memories are remarkably good," Matt Durrett, prosecuting attorney, told jurors. "After something like that, you don't forget."

In Segerstrom's case, the jury is hearing evidence and arguments from both prosecutors and the defense before recommending a new sentence to Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay. The sentencing range is now 10 to 40 years or life.

In his opening statement to jurors Wednesday, Durrett said Barbara Thompson was a typical 4-year-old who loved being outdoors.

"He saw her outside and lured her away with a promise that he was going to help her catch butterflies," Durrett said before describing in detail how Segerstrom beat the child with sticks; covered her mouth and nose, smothering her to muffle her screams; then stripped her clothes from the waist down and sexually assaulted her with a stick which broke off.

"As she was screaming and crying for help, far away where no one could hear, he got tired of hearing her scream so he picked up a 40-pound rock and dropped it on this 4-year-old girl's head, crushing her skull," Durrett said. "And then he left her there."

Segerstrom was arrested nearby a short time later. He was sitting in the grass smoking a cigarette when neighbors surrounded him. Barbara Thompson's blood was on his clothes.

"We're here to determine a sentence for him -- what he deserves to serve for what he has done," Durrett told jurors. "But this isn't just all about him. This about a 4-year-old girl. This is about Barbara, too, because we are here because of what he did to her. We are here because of what he did to her back on that July day 36 years ago."

Durrett began and ended his case Wednesday. He asked the jury to return a verdict of life in prison.

Lawyers for Segerstrom will start presenting their case this morning.

Ben Crabtree, an attorney for Segerstrom, told jurors society has evolved and juveniles are no longer sentenced to life without parole because we have learned that their brains are not mature mentally or emotionally.

"We don't punish kids the way we do adults," Crabtree said. "You're sentencing Chris for something he did as a 15-year-old, mentally challenged boy."

Segerstrom's attorneys have long argued he is mentally ill and is unfit to be resentenced.


Resentence

Means to issue a new sentence for certain crimes. When a sentence of punishment is found to be void or illegal, it will be committed back to the trial court for declaring a new sentence. The new sentencing awarded is called resentence.

Source: uslegal.com

 



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