Sex offender to go on trial for injecting teen with meth

Lonnie Lee Lunsford, 31, faces 40 counts of introduction of a controlled substance into the body of another. Lunsford allegedly began giving a 16-year-old girl intravenous doses of methamphetamine at his home in the 500 block of Orleans Street in Texarkana, Ark., in June 2014, a probable cause affidavit states.

The girl told investigators she was unable to inject herself when Lunsford offered to do it for her. The alleged victim reported that when Lunsford injected her, she felt high for several days. Lunsford was serving a five-year probation for residential burglary and a five-year probation for failing to register as a sex offender when he was jailed last year on the controlled substance charges.

At a hearing Monday before Miller County Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson, Lunsford’s probations were revoked. He received five and ten year sentences on the prior failure to register and burglary charges. Johnson ordered Lunsford to serve the sentences consecutively.

Each of the introduction of controlled substance charges is punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in prison. Court records show prosecutors are seeking to enhance the punishment range to 10 to 60 or life because of Lunsford’s prior convictions.

Jury selection is scheduled for Jan. 25.

Lunsford is required to register as a sex offender because of a 2003 conviction for coercion in Clark County, Nevada, according to the state of Nevada’s Department of Public Safety website.