Fouke man gets 48 years for sexually abusing four girls

Scott Dewayne Heimeyer, 35, appeared with public defender Matt Stephens for a plea hearing before Circuit Judge Carlton Jones at the Miller County courthouse. Heimeyer pleaded no contest to 11 criminal counts involving the sexual abuse of four girls. Three of the victims are Heimeyer’s relatives while the fourth is a friend of one of the girls who spent a night in Heimeyer’s home in 2015, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell said.

The family friend was awakened in the night during a sleepover in June 2015 by Heimeyer. Mitchell said that when the friend told the girl she was spending the night with, that girl admitted that Heimeyer had abused her repeatedly. Investigators ultimately determined that Heimeyer had abused four girls. Two of the victims were 11 when the abuse was brought to the attention of the Miller County Sheriff’s Office while the other two were 9 and 10, Mitchell said.

As Mitchell gave the court factual descriptions for each of the 11 counts, Heimeyer sat at the defense table with his head down. Heimeyer pleaded no contest to three counts of rape, six counts of second degree sexual assault of a child and two counts of sexual indecency with a child. After hearing the factual bases for each charge, Jones found Heimeyer guilty of all counts. Jones sentenced Heimeyer to 40 years on each of the rape charges and ordered the terms to run concurrently. Heimeyer received eight-year sentences for each of the second degree sexual assaults which will be served concurrently to the other sexual assault sentences but consecutive to the rape sentences. The two six-year terms Heimeyer received for the indecency counts will run concurrently to all the other sentences.

“By my calculations you just turned 35,” Jones said. “And you’ll be eligible for parole in about 30 years. At least for that period of time you’ll be unable to offend.”

Jones noted that Heimeyer’s plea bargain spared him the possibility of a life sentence.

“There is nothing this court can do to make these young ladies whole again,” Jones said after describing Heimeyer’s conduct as “completely foreign and unfathomable.”

Several of the victims’ mothers and one father gave victim impact testimony.

“We are here today because of a great evil, one of the worst that can be perpetrated on a child,” one mother testified. “But through it I have seen friendships grow and young people persevere in a way I didn’t think possible. I hope one day you understand what you did, what you’ve taken.”