FAYETTEVILLE -- Chris Segerstrom was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for the second time for murdering a child more than 36 years ago.
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, Fayetteville where he smothered her and sexually assaulted her with a stick before bashing her head in with a 40-pound rock.
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.
Segerstrom's murder conviction was never in jeopardy. But the U.S. and Arkansas supreme courts in recent years have made a series of rulings that juveniles can't be given a sentence of life without parole.
After two days of proceedings, the jury deliberated about 30 minutes before reaching a sentencing recommendation. None of the jurors looked at Segerstrom when they came back into the courtroom.
Segerstrom showed no emotion when the verdict was read or when the sentence was imposed.
Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay sentenced Segerstrom immediately, denying a defense request to give them time to renew motions arguing whether Segerstrom was to fit to proceed because of mental illness. Lindsay had earlier denied similar motions and said nothing had changed.
Segerstrom's attorneys have long argued he is mentally ill and was unfit to be resentenced.
In the hallway outside, tears flowed freely as relieved family members hugged Jena Muddiman, Barbara's mother, and thanked Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett and his staff. At one point, several family members paused to pray together in a corner. They watched as Segerstrom was led from the courtroom in shackles on his way back to jail. He will now be transferred back to the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
Muddiman said the verdict brings finality and closure after a decade of uncertainty that began when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that minors who had been given life without parole sentences had to be resentenced by juries.
"We won. We won," Muddiman said rejoicing through tears of joy and clapping her hands. She said it was the outcome she had been praying for and her prayers had been answered.
Muddiman said she will still check at least once or twice a week just to assure herself Segerstrom is still in prison, as she has done since he was originally sentenced.
"That's something that won't ever change," Muddiman said. "Old habits run deep, and I've been doing that for 36 years. I don't see it changing anytime soon."
Durrett said the verdict came as a huge relief.
"For me it was kind of all or nothing. If he had gotten a number [of years], if they had put a number down there that was, in my mind, catastrophic," Durrett said. "And, that is what I was trying to convey throughout the whole sentencing trial -- this is someone who has posed a danger to everyone he comes in contact with since July 26, 1986."
Durrett said the three retired Fayetteville police officers, Russ Cole, Carroll "Arlo" Guthrie and Mike Mitchell, who worked the case and came back to testify at the resentencing hearing were key to building a case after 36 years. Durrett said he did not have to track down the officers, they came to him wanting to help.
"Those three guys are heroes and they're just a small sampling of the entire force back 36 years ago, coming together to make sure that they got this guy," Durrett said. "Those guys have been retired for 20-plus years."
Durrett said 35 years ago the family had a jury and judge find Segerstrom guilty and sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and they believed he'd never get out.
"Then, all of a sudden, 30 years later, the nightmare has come up again. You can't kill it. You can't put it behind you. It won't go away," Durrett said. "So, finally I hope if nothing else this will give them some peace of mind."
Durrett stressed to the jury in his closing argument that anything less than a life sentence would mean Segerstrom would walk free, with no supervision in as little as four years, because he's served 36 years already.
In Segerstrom's case, life does mean life. Durrett said Arkansas law was changed in 2017 to make murder by a juvenile punishable by life with the possibility of parole after 30 years. But, the Arkansas Supreme Court specifically ruled that was not retroactive in Segerstrom's case and the earlier sentencing range of 10 to 40 years or life applied.
"In Arkansas, life and life without parole, you don't get parole on either one of those," Durrett said.
Durrett said the earlier rulings barred mandatory life sentences for juveniles, that they had to be allowed a hearing where they could present evidence of their youth or immaturity to a jury and let the jury decide.
"They didn't say you couldn't give them life; they specifically said that and assumed it would be rare," Durrett said. "But, fortunately, people like Chris Segerstrom are rare. They reserved the possibility of life in prison for people like Chris Segerstrom."
More News
NoneTeen murder cases
Washington County had two other cases of teen murderers sentenced to life without parole. Both of those men have been released from prison.
• James Dean Vancleave of Springdale was convicted of capital murder for killing 23-year-old Debra King. He was 16 when he killed King on Jan. 29, 1978, at a convenience store on Elm Springs Road. Van-cleave stabbed King 16 times, slashed her hand 11 times and tried to slash her throat with a small hunting knife to get $30 from her purse. The cash register wasn’t touched. Vancleave was paroled in March 2018.
• Dennis Wayne Lewis of Wichita, Kan., was convicted of capital murder and assault with intent to rob. Lewis was 17 when he killed Jared Jerome Cobb at Cobb’s Western Store and Pawn Shop in Springdale during an armed robbery April 8, 1974. Lewis was discharged from the Arkansas Department of Corrections on Oct. 25, 2016.
Source: Arkansas Department of Corrections