Paragould man sentenced for child rape

PARAGOULD, Ark. (KAIT) - A judge sentenced a Paragould man Monday to 35 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to raping a child.

Greene County sheriff’s deputies arrested 26-year-old Maurice James Lincoln Cooper last December on three counts of rape-minor under the age of 14.

According to the court documents, investigators received a tip in November 2023 from the Arkansas Child Abuse Hotline regarding the suspected sexual assault of a child on at least three separate occasions.

The victim “was able to give descriptive details of the abuse and named the potential defendant Maurice Cooper as the perpetrator.”

Captain Rhonda Thomas stated that during a Dec. 1 Mirandized interview at the sheriff’s office, Cooper “gave a self-incriminating statement.”

On Monday, April 15, Circuit Judge Melissa Richardson sentenced Cooper to 420 months in the Arkansas Department of Corrections after he entered a negotiated plea of guilty to one count of rape.

The judge also ordered Cooper to register as a sex offender and to pay all court costs and fines in $50 monthly installments upon his release from the ADC.

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