A Malvern man was sentenced to life plus 60 years in prison Tuesday after asking a Garland County Circuit Court jury from the witness stand to give him the maximum for the rape and attempted murder of a local woman in 2014.
Larry Lavelle Jones, 37, pleaded guilty to both charges Monday morning, but prosecutors opted to let a six-man, six-woman jury decide his fate, which they did in less than 10 minutes after he testified Tuesday, admitting that he raped the 66-year-old victim and likely would have killed her if witnesses had not intervened.
Jones told the jury, "I'm not asking for mercy. Do what you must." Addressing the victim and her family in the audience, he told her, "You're a remarkable woman and you have a lot of people who love you. I look at rape the same as murder. I'm not asking for mercy. Go ahead with whatever the maximum is. I'm fine with that."
The victim had testified earlier Tuesday about her journey from an orphanage in South America to the United States which eventually brought her to Hot Springs, where she had worked at the Hot Springs Mall, where the attack occurred, for 23 years.
Jones told the victim, "I'm very sorry for what I've done. I've had a lot of sleepless nights and depression and anxiety. I've never put my hands on a woman before."
Robert Rudolph, the pastor of the Calvary Church of God in Christ in Malvern, where Jones was a member, had testified earlier Tuesday that on Sept. 21, 2014, the day before the victim was attacked, Jones had driven him and his wife to a church in Crossett where he was also serving as pastor.
Rudolph said Jones often volunteered his services to the church, mowing the lawn and helping set up for events, and had volunteered to drive them to the other church that Sunday.
Jones testified he went to his job at the brick plant in Malvern the next morning where he got into a fight with a co-worker he described as "a racist b - - - - " and that he was fired even though he had been there 10 years and his co-worker had only been there two years.
"I felt like it was unfair for me to be treated that way and I was angry. My mind was racing," he said, describing how he came to Hot Springs, bought a six pack of beer and began driving around the city "drinking and crying."
Jones said he didn't think about the fact he was going to school and also had a part-time landscaping business, but only that he had lost his job. "I let my emotions drive me," he said, and ended up in the mall parking lot where he sat in his pickup continuing to drink.
When the victim walked by him going to her car, he said, "I decided to make her my target. I didn't know her. Never seen her before." He said he struck her, took her purse which he put in his pickup and then returned to harass her, demanding more money.
"I used profanity at her and proceeded to beat on her. I grabbed her by the neck while I was hitting her." He said he began arguing with himself and the voice in his head which questioned what he was doing. "I didn't want to hear it. I responded to myself to shut the f - - - up."
Jones said the victim began kicking at him and screaming for help, causing him to fall backward and he pulled part of her skirt off as he fell. When he saw what he had done, he pulled her panties off and then raped her, he said.
He admitted he told the victim he would kill her and that he was guilty of rape and attempting to take her life.
"I was selfish in my actions and even if I'm incarcerated for the rest of my life I want to be at peace. I want (the victim) and her family to be able to heal. I can't do anything to eradicate what I've done. I can't take that back.
"I know she's a strong woman. I just hope you and your family will someday be able to forgive me. I devalued your life and I was so close to taking your life. I've done a disgraceful thing."
The victim testified she was born in Columbia in South America, where her father was shot and killed during a revolution when she was 6 years old. Her mother left her with her grandmother who raised her until she was 11 and then put her in an orphanage near Bogota. "I was very depressed and cried every day for three months," she said.
She said she eventually adjusted to her new life and got a scholarship to a school run by nuns from Barcelona, Spain, and was later adopted by an American couple who brought her to live in Santa Clara, Calif. in 1962. In 1977, she met her husband, who was from Arkansas and brought her to Hot Springs to live. They were married for 40 years until his death, and had three daughters together.
She said she was taking her lunch break the day of the attack and had gone to her car to read the newspaper because a co-worker had told her how nice it was outside. She said she saw Jones in the lot and they "looked at each other" but she didn't think anything about it.
"I got to my car and then I don't remember what happened," she said, noting she woke up on her back in the front seat "staring at the car ceiling. I felt confused and dizzy and very weak." She said Jones was in the car with her and took her purse and "I was too weak to stop him."
Then he returned and she remembered him taking her clothes off and "I knew I was going to be raped. There was nothing I could do." She said at one point he asked her about her family and she told him she had three daughters.
She said he then told her he would kill her first and then kill her daughters if she told anyone what happened. She said Jones had been hitting her as he raped her to the point "my face was so numb I couldn't feel anything."
"I felt like begging him to stop but I couldn't talk," she said, noting she was so weak she was "almost paralyzed." She said she saw a van pass by and "tried to use all my strength" and began kicking at the driver's window.
Soon she heard voices and recognized one as her assistant manager and then heard sirens and "I got the idea that they could be for me. I don't remember anything else until the next morning."
She recalled later in the hospital trying to look at her throat, which had purple marks from being strangled, but being afraid to look at her face. "I didn't want to look at myself."
She told the jury of the several surgeries she had to endure, including having her mouth wired shut, as doctors worked to reconstruct her face. "I don't look the same now. Every time I look in the mirror I see the scars," she said.
She explained how she had a mental breakdown, believing at one point that the devil was in her bathroom, and that she was still fearful to be alone. "Every time I get in my car the first thing I do is lock the door. I'm very cautious about people now."
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kara Petro, in her closing remarks to the jury, said Jones "decided to give (the victim) a life sentence of fear with no jury." She said he "totally terrorized her" because "he had a bad day."
Petro noted the victim "had a difficult life growing up, but she didn't choose to take it out on anyone else."
In his closing, Mark Fraiser, attorney for Jones, said he felt they had done a disservice to the victim by referring to her as a victim during the trial. Addressing her, he said, "You're not a victim. You're a survivor."
He told the jury they might question "why we wasted your time for two days" but assured them it was not a waste.
"Sometimes the system requires a trial be held under some circumstances and that's what we've done. Everyone deserves to be heard and deserves representation."
Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michelle Lawrence called the victim "one of the bravest women I think I've ever met."
She told the jury Jones "has asked you for life plus 60 and he's earned it, by God," and urged them to give him the maximum "to keep all of us safe because we'll know where he is for the rest of his life."
Local on 02/10/2016