Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Jury gives Buford life after rape conviction

A 33-year-old Gurdon man received life in prison, without possibility of parole, for being convicted of raping a 12-year-old boy in the Crestwood Apartments here last summer.

Marshal Don Childres said Thursday a two-day jury trial in Arkadelphia resulted in the harshest sentencing possible for the charge, after "the jury was counseled by expert testimony."

Vasun Buford, 33, has been in the Clark County Jail for the past year awaiting this trial, which occurred Thursday and Friday, July 21 and July 22.

Childres said the felony conviction resulted in the jury being able to choose a sentence between 10 years and life.

"This expert lady got on the stand and testified that 80 percent of pedophiles repeat their sexual crimes once they are back out on the streets," Childress said. "This jury voted for the maximum sentence. I guess they did not want Buford back on those streets."

Childres said he arrested Buford, along with help from the Clark County Sheriff's Department. He was taken to the county jail.

"If Buford had received a certain number of years, he could be out in 70 percent of those years,' Marshal Childres said. "This jury just did not want to take that chance.

"As to what they gave Buford, life is life to my knowledge."

Buford has been transferred to the Pine Bluff facility of the Arkansas Department of Corrections.

Clark County Prosecuting Attorney Henry Morgan said there was another rape case, involving a juvenile, in Gurdon about five years ago and the jury gave that person a life sentence as well.

"I don't think our Clark County jurors like adults who have been messing with kids," Morgan said.

As to the Buford case, Morgan said there was a first trial around four months ago, but the jury hung on the verdict, 11 guilty and one not guilty.

"So we had another trial, with another jury," Morgan said. "I hope not to embarrass the victim with this results story. I will say this, the 12-year-old boy who was the victim was at Crestwood Apartments as a visitor. He did not live there."

Morgan said Clark County public defender Alan LeVar was the appointed attorney for the defendant.

Morgan said there was a towel entered into evidence, found in the closet at the Crestwood Apartment belonging to Buford, that had Buford's sperm and feces on it.

"We entered the towel into evidence to establish Buford as someone with a homosexual lifestyle. It did point to the lifestyle," Morgan said.

"We had witnesses in the background we did not call, who saw the coming and going of young people from that apartment."

Morgan said the Gurdon community should feel a lot safer now that Vasun Buford is no longer on the streets.

"The chances of curing a child molester are very slim," Morgan said. "Although during the trial, Buford's prior criminal record was with held from the jury, they were allowed to know it during the sentencing that he has had a previous felony record for habitual crime."

Morgan said two young witnesses, eight years old and 13 years old, testified that they looked through Buford's window last year at his Crestwood Apartment and watched him having sexual relations with the 12-year-old boy.

Morgan further said the expert witness, who testified about the unlikelihood of rehabilitating a pedofile, might not have been totally accurate in saying only 80 percent would return to their crime upon release.

"It stands to reason she probably meant 80 percent are caught returning to their crime. The other 20 percent may continue molesting kids but have just gotten smart about it so they will no longer get caught," he said.

"Think about it. These men prefer homosexual relationships with underage kids. We are about as likely to talk them out of that as you would be to talk a happily married man out of having a sexual relationship with his wife."

Morgan said he is grateful pedofile relationships are illegal and saddened that they are so common. He said he watched a television program recently which said one out of every six young boys will be raped by an adult male before they are 18-years-old.

"If the frequency is that high, then a life sentence for an underage rape conviction is a good lesson and could possibly change someone's mind who is considering such an act," Morgan said.

Morgan said witnesses to the act in question, of which Buford was convicted and sentenced, were afraid to be close to Buford in order to give testimony.

"Generally, witnesses to something like this are afraid to come into a courtroom," he said.

"At one point, we had to have Don Childres come in and sit in the courtroom because one of these young witnesses would not offer testimony without someone he knew around to protect him," Morgan said.

The prosecutor said the only solution for the pedofile to live in main stream society is abstaining.

"Almost all will apparently continue to have urges," he said. "But they could quit having sex all together, just as anyone else can."