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

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


    Barbara Thompson




    Defense to present case this morning

    By Ron Wood
    Arkansas Online

    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.

    https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2022/...nal-testimony/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Convicted child killer in Fayetteville resentenced to life in prison

    Christopher Segerstrom was resentenced to life in prison for the murder of 4-year-old Barbara Thompson in 1987

    By Haleigh Schmidt
    5newsonline.com

    FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A Fayetteville man convicted of sexually assaulting and killing a 4-year-old child in 1986 has been resentenced for the crime.

    Christopher Segerstrom was originally sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for Barbara Thompson's death in 1987. On Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022, Segerstrom was resentenced to life in prison for the murder.

    Segerstrom was 15-years-old on when he was convicted of capital murder for sexually assaulting and killing Thompson. He is accused of hitting Thompson on the head with a rock and suffocating her in a wooded area near the University of Arkansas.

    He was released from the Arkansas State Hospital last year and court records show he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and an antisocial personality disorder. He was being held at the Washington County Jail up until his recent resentencing.

    His resentencing comes after the U.S. Supreme Court and Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that juveniles could not be sentenced to life without parole. Meaning, that anyone who was sentenced as a teen to life without parole has to be resentenced.

    In April 2017, the State of Arkansas filed a motion for resentencing in Washington County Circuit Court under the Fair Sentencing of Minors Act of 2017 (FSMA).

    During the resentencing trial, a doctor from the Arkansas State Hospital testified that while Segerstrom has a low IQ, he believes that the convicted killer does have the mental capacity to act out to "get what he wants."

    https://www.5newsonline.com/article/...4-17cd915dbc48
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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