Jonesboro, AR – Jonesboro Right Now – The Arkansas Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld the 86-year prison sentence of a Jonesboro man convicted of raping a minor.
John Walton, 47, was sentenced on July 24, 2025, after a jury found him guilty of rape, second-degree sexual assault, and sexual indecency with a child. Craighead County Circuit Court Judge Chris Thyer followed the jury’s recommendation to run the sentences consecutively.
Court records show that Walton received 40 years for rape, 20 years for sexual assault, and six years for sexual indecency. Additionally, he received two separate 10-year sentencing enhancements for committing an offense in the presence of a child, bringing his aggregate sentence to 86 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
The sentencing order stated Walton received credit for 366 days of jail time served and will be required to register as a sex offender.
Walton was arrested by the Jonesboro Police Department in July 2024 after a parent reported that Walton had sexually assaulted a juvenile who was visiting his home.
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According to a probable cause affidavit, Walton followed the victim into a bathroom before his wife intervened and separated the two. During his initial court appearance, District Judge Tommy Boling set Walton’s bond at $1 million and issued a no-contact order prohibiting contact with the victim or any non-biological minors under the age of 18.
In his appeal, Walton challenged the trial court’s decision to allow testimony from other witnesses regarding prior acts. He argued that this testimony should have been excluded under Arkansas Rules of Evidence 404(b) and 403, claiming it was overly prejudicial and that Walton lacked the “intimate relationship” necessary with those witnesses to trigger the state’s pedophile exception.
The appellate court rejected this argument. Writing for the court, Judge Stephanie Potter Barrett noted that the legal standard for an intimate relationship under the pedophile exception is not strict and can apply when offenses occur while minors are in the perpetrator’s home, care, or under their authority.
The court ruled that Judge Thyer did not abuse his discretion, as the testimony was highly probative of a depraved sexual instinct and was properly admitted to show a proclivity for specific offenses.
Walton also contested the “stacking” of his sentencing enhancements under Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-4-702. He argued that because the offenses occurred during a single criminal episode, the 10-year enhancements for child presence should not have been applied separately to multiple charges.
The Court of Appeals found that the language of the statute is offense-based, rather than episode-based. The court noted that the General Assembly did not include language merging multiple offenses into a single criminal episode for the purposes of the enhancement.
“When a defendant is convicted of multiple qualifying offenses and each offense satisfies those statutory requirements, each offense provides an independent basis for the enhancement,” Barrett wrote in the opinion. “The fact the offenses occurred during the same criminal episode does not change the character of those convictions as separate offenses.”
The appellate court concluded that because each of Walton’s underlying offenses independently qualified under the statute, the trial court was fully authorized to impose a separate enhancement for each offense.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic/sexual violence, call 800-656-HOPE (4673) to reach the National Sexual Assault Hotline. You can also call 870-933-9449 to reach the Family Crisis Center’s emergency hotline.
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