An Izard County man is facing eight felony sex charges, two of them rape, after being arrested for an incident involving an underage female. Twenty-year-old James Bennett Powell of Melbourne was arrested early Friday morning. Rape is a class Y felony, the most serious crime in Arkansas not punishable by the death penalty.
According to the probable cause affidavit from the Izard County Sheriff’s Office, law enforcement learned of the sexual assault and interviewed the victim May 8. Powell was brought in for questioning late last Thursday night. Investigators said Powell’s answers to questions closely matched details given by the victim.
When deputies went to put handcuffs on Powell to take him into custody, he resisted, and it took multiple deputies to restrain him and get him into the detention center. Once there, he asked why he was being detained and he was informed for deviate sexual activity with a minor. Powell exclaimed it was “only once.”
Powell is facing two counts of rape, three counts of second degree sexual assault, two counts of sexual indecency with a child and one count of employing or consenting to the use of a child in a sexual performance because a second minor was present. He also picked up a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest. Powell is being held in the Izard County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond.
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