A convicted rapist whose 50-year prison sentence for sexual assault was overturned last year was sentenced to 24 years in prison Monday after a one-day trial in Garland County Circuit Court on a failure to appear charge.
A six-man, six-woman jury took about 25 minutes Monday to find Neil Allen Hall, 48, guilty of felony failure to appear, a charge that had been withdrawn by prosecutors after his Oct. 30, 2017, conviction for second-degree sexual assault involving an 8-year-old girl in 2013.
The jury deliberated for a little over 30 minutes before recommending the sentence of 24 years. The maximum on the charge was 30 years.
Hall was on parole from a 1990 conviction for the rape and kidnapping of an 11-year-old in Polk County when he was arrested in Hot Springs on April 9, 2013, on the sexual assault charge after he allegedly grabbed the 8-year-old's bottom and told her, "I want to (expletive) you," while she was shopping at the Goodwill Store, 631 E. Grand Ave.
On Oct. 3, 2018, the Arkansas Court of Appeals overturned Hall's conviction on the sexual assault charge, ruling that Hall's trial should have ended in a mistrial after Deputy Prosecutor Kara Petro made "highly misleading" and prejudicial remarks about Hall just before the jury began deliberations.
The appeals court reversed and remanded the case, and Hall is set to be retried on the charge in August this year.
Petro said Monday that while she was cross-examining Hall during his 2017 sexual assault trial she had mentioned how he had removed his GPS ankle monitor to escape at one point, which later resulted in a failure to appear charge.
She said the Court of Appeals had said the state never filed a failure to appear charge, "but we did," and that they only withdrew it after his conviction on the more serious sexual assault charge. The failure to appear was refiled after the sexual assault was overturned and Petro said she felt vindicated after Monday's verdict.
"I'm really happy right now," she said, noting the sexual assault victim "was such a trooper" during the original trial, especially since the incident occurred in 2013 but didn't go to trial until 2017.
Petro said she had asked for Hall's sentence on the failure to appear to run consecutive to a five-year federal sentence he is already serving for failure to comply with sex offender reporting requirements, which was granted Monday by Judge Marcia Hearnsberger. Hall would have been eligible for parole on the federal charge in 2021.
According to earlier reports regarding the Court of Appeals decision, Petro's statement about Hall fleeing had prompted Hall's attorney, Lee Short, to object and ask for a mistrial. The circuit court judge ordered the jury to disregard the statement but allowed the trial to continue.
Writing for the majority, Appeals Judge Phillip Whiteaker said the statement was inaccurate. While Hall had failed to appear at a previously scheduled jury trial in the case, he did not "flee," Whiteaker said.
Petro's statement also failed to mention that the failure to appear occurred in the case at hand, "leaving the jury to speculate as to how many jury trials or crimes in which Hall had been involved, insinuating that Hall was a bad person."
Hall had been set to stand trial on the sexual assault charge on June 25, 2014, but failed to appear in court. Hall had been wearing an ankle monitor as part of his release, but removed the monitor around 1:30 p.m. that day and was being sought by police. His photograph was published in The Sentinel-Record and on social media.
Hall was later arrested in Texas for failure to register and convicted under the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act for crossing state lines. It was several months before Hall could be extradited back to Hot Springs.
Local on 03/20/2019