A 47-year old Cleveland county man has been sentenced to 20 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections after pleading guilty to sexual assault in the first-degree.
Nathan Garlington will receive credit for one day spent in jail, and was charged as a habitual offender with three felonies on his record according to court documents.
Charges were filed after Garlington was accused of engaging in sexual contact with a minor female in 2019.
He was originally charged with fourth-degree sexual assault, a Class D felony, following an investigation by the Arkansas State Police, but those charges were later upgraded to first-degree sexual assault.
The charges were filed in Cleveland County Circuit Court on Sept. 18, one month after the completion of the investigation. An arrest warrant was issued that day and was served by a Cleveland County deputy on Aug. 20, 2020. Garlington was later released on a $5,000 bond.
The affidavit for the warrant was prepared by State Police Special Agent Randy Rauls who reported that he received a referral packet from the State Police Crimes Against Children Division on Sept. 4 that contained paperwork concerning a possible sexual relationship between Garlington and a 14-year-old female.
Rauls reported that during the course of the investigation, he obtained search warrants for cellular and historical phone records and after reviewing the information, it was determined that Garlington and the minor female had been communicating by text messages and phone calls. The affidavit went on to say that the information in these messages and times of these calls and messages were “not normal behavior for communication between a (minor) and an (adult).”
He went on to report that a witness said Garlington’s son told him (the witness) that he heard “squeaky noises” while Garlington and the minor female were in Garlington’s bedroom. The same witness reported that one night he knocked on Garlington’s bedroom door and Garlington and the minor female were both in the bedroom.
According to the Criminal Information Sheet, Garlington is being charged as an habitual offender having been convicted of more than one but less than four felonies. Court records showed convictions on drug related offenses in 1995 and 1998.
DeltaplexNews.com writer Ray King also contributed to this report.
