Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Dec. 9, 2024 – Two Craighead County Sheriff’s Department officers were named Crimestoppers of the Year on Monday at the Craighead County Sheriff’s Department.
Detective Brock McFarlin and Sergeant Mandi Smyth were chosen thanks to their investigation resulting in the conviction of 60-year-old Adam Williams, a Level 2 Sex Offender.
Smyth said it was quite a surprise for them to have won this honor as they were not expecting anything.
“We were just doing our jobs,” she stated. “It’s surprising because we don’t do it for recognition at all. We do it because we want to help others.”
The case began a few years ago when the suspect was originally reported. The victims were originally interviewed by a different agency, but there were not enough findings in the case to file charges at that time.
“About a year later, the case comes back to our attention, and we basically started over,” McFarlin said. “We started with a whole new report going back through crimes against children to do the interview. The victims were older, so they were able to give more information which involved the case. The suspect was already on the sex offender registry, so we were familiar with him. A process of the investigation and search warrants led to putting the case together to where it was a prosecutable case.”
McFarlin also noted that Williams, being a sex offender, was out of compliance as far as keeping with registration requirements.
“He was charged with that and that’s kind of what kicked everything in gear. We had him here. We were able to talk to him and then execute search warrants, which ended up resulting in more charges outside of the original charge we were investing.”
Smyth said the convicted sex offender, who has been incarcerated since June 11, was given a $5 million bond in August after being charged with five counts of rape, a Class Y felony, and two counts of sexually grooming a child, a Class D felony.
“It’s very fulfilling because this case was very ongoing,” Smyth said, noting how the family had been disappointed when no charges could be filed the first time. “They were expecting things not to go any farther, but me and Brock, we weren’t letting it slip through the cracks this time. It took some push and pull with every department.”
“We were going to make this happen. This has been going on to [the victim] since she was a little, so it went for years and she’s finally getting her justice on him going to court,” she said.
Williams’s trial is now set for February.
According to JRN archives, Williams was convicted of sexual assault in the first degree in 2006 and has faced a litany of charges since then.
A probable cause affidavit on Feb. 8 said the complainant had come into the Sheriff’s Office to report a sexual assault on a minor. The complainant said he’d first reported the case in 2021, when he first received custody of the child, but nothing ever came of the case.
The 9-year-old told him about being raped on multiple occasions by Williams at a family member’s house where he was staying. On March 15 a Search Warrant was signed for the house where Williams resided near Jonesboro.