Prosecutor Touts ‘Off the Streets’ Result for Man Already Serving 30-Year Prison Sentence

He Was Already in Prison When She Got Him “Off the Streets”

JONESBORO, Ark. — A social media graphic from the 2nd Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney’s Office declares that prosecutors have gotten “another sexual predator off the streets.”

There is one significant problem with that description: The defendant was already in prison.

Roy Nichols Jr. was already serving a 360-month — or 30-year — Arkansas prison sentence imposed in 2022 when prosecutors reached a negotiated plea agreement with him in a separate Craighead County case.

On Aug. 27, Nichols pleaded guilty to rape and second-degree sexual assault. Court records show sentences of 240 months for rape and 120 months for second-degree sexual assault.

During the interview, Roy Nichols Jr admitted to having intercourse with the victim. He said that he was lying in his bed when the victim came into his room. He also said that the victim had him follow to her room and have sex with her. He then told me that he did not wear a condom and ejaculated on her instead of inside her. He said that this was the only time he had sex with her because she was more like a sister. – PC Affidavit

The prosecutor’s office subsequently published a dramatic black-and-red graphic featuring Nichols’ booking photograph under the words “JUSTICE SERVED” and “ANOTHER SEXUAL PREDATOR OFF THE STREETS.”

The graphic says Nichols was sentenced to 30 years in the Arkansas Department of Correction and concludes with the message, “PROTECTING OUR COMMUNITY. HOLDING PREDATORS ACCOUNTABLE.”

Nichols’ convictions are serious, and obtaining a rape conviction through a negotiated guilty plea is a legitimate prosecutorial result.

But prosecutors did not take Nichols “off the streets” through the Aug. 27 plea agreement.

He had already been removed from the streets years earlier.

Records show Nichols received a 360-month prison sentence on June 2, 2022, for criminal attempt in a Craighead County case. He was therefore already serving a three-decade prison sentence when the prosecutor’s office negotiated the latest resolution.

That distinction is especially relevant because the new case did not end with a jury trial and conviction. Nichols agreed to plead guilty as part of a negotiated plea.

The prosecutor’s graphic does not explain that history. NEA Report reached out to Prosecuting Attorney Sonia Hagood, who blocked our calls after this report.

The prosecutor’s post does not tell readers that Nichols was already incarcerated. It does not mention his existing 30-year sentence. And it does not identify the disposition as the product of a negotiated plea agreement.

Those omissions do not make the rape conviction insignificant. They do, however, change the meaning of the claim that the prosecutor’s office took another dangerous offender “off the streets.”

The office secured additional felony convictions against an already-incarcerated defendant. That is different from prosecuting an offender who was living freely in the community and obtaining a sentence that removed that person from it.

There is another potentially important issue in evaluating the practical effect of the plea: whether Nichols’ new sentences run concurrently with or consecutively to the 360-month sentence he was already serving.

The promotional graphic does not explain that either. If the sentences run concurrently, his newest sentence will run at the same time as his current sentence – exactly the same 320 months. According to the ADC website, his total sentence is 30 years. 

Without that information, the graphic alone does not tell the public whether the plea extended Nichols’ expected incarceration by decades, by some lesser period or potentially not at all beyond his existing sentence.

The distinction illustrates a broader issue with government agencies increasingly communicating criminal justice outcomes through promotional social media graphics.  Prosecutors are entitled to explain their work and highlight convictions. But their offices also wield the power of the state, and descriptions of their accomplishments should accurately reflect what occurred.

In this case, the underlying accomplishment can be stated plainly: Prosecutors negotiated a guilty plea in which Nichols was convicted of rape and second-degree sexual assault and received sentences totaling 30 years as described by the office.

What they did not do on Aug. 27 was take Nichols off the streets.