An elderly man recently convicted of raping a young girl in the basement of a deceased philanthropist’s home in Little Rock’s Hillcrest neighborhood is appealing the verdict.
In July, a Pulaski County jury convicted James Martin Smith84, for rape and sexual assault of the child, who was under 14 years old at the time of the incident (which occurred around 2015).
The jury acquitted James Smith, who was Stella Boyle Smith house on Ridgeway Drive, two other cases of rape of the same child and one case of sexual assault of another girl, also under the age of 14.
Both children were visiting James Smith and his wife, to whom they had been married for over 40 years at the time, and both girls testified in district court that he had committed the alleged offenses.
James Smith now faces a 26-year prison sentence – 25 years for rape and one for sexual abuse – and must continue treatment for a previously diagnosed cancer.
“His medical expenses are now the state’s problem, as they amount to (tens of thousands) per month for cancer treatments,” said the defense attorney John Wesley Hall said.
James Smith’s relationship to Stella Boyle Smith is unclear; neither Hall nor the assistant district attorney who handled the case Jordan Snowdensaid they knew.
According to court documents, the defendant had lived in the Ridgeway house for 23 years; Stella Smith, who founded the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra in 1923, died in 1994. The house, with its black-and-white Stella Boyle Smith tombstone in the front yard, is currently for sale.
Hall filed an appeal earlier this month. James Smith is currently in the Pulaski County Jail awaiting transfer to the state prison system.
Because of ongoing cancer treatments and to help his wife, who is confined to a wheelchair, Cathleen Compton allowed James Smith to delay his extradition for two weeks after his conviction. Snowden, the assistant district attorney, unsuccessfully appealed the delay.
According to court documents, James Smith took the stand and denied sexually touching the girls and said he had not had an erection in more than 20 years. He also denied giving the girls gifts such as jewelry to groom them. James Smith’s wife, Dottie Smithalso testified that she and her husband had not had sex for more than 20 years and that he had had a melanoma removed from his penis prior to the alleged crimes.
