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The Morning News
Local News for Northwest Arkansas

Man Sentenced for Sex with Teen

By Robin Mero
The Morning News
BENTONVILLE -- A Bentonville man was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison for having sex with a then 13-year-old girl.

Jose Fernando Manzanares, 30, was one of five neighborhood men the girl admitted to having sexual contact with during 2001 and 2002.

The girl lived alternately with foster and biological parents. She would sneak out of her bedroom window and go to Manzanares' house, she told Bentonville police in February 2002.

Manzanares plead guilty to second-degree sexual assault before Benton County Circuit Judge Tom Keith.

Manzanares eluded local police and was later captured in Texas but fought extradition to Arkansas, prosecutors said. He's been in jail 603 days.

He needed an interpreter in court, but his residency status was not given. His employer told police he has an employment authorization card but uses various names.

Two other men were arrested, but one of those cases was dropped. The third man, Efrain Merlos, 39, of Bentonville posted a $15,000 bond but, according to his file, later failed to appear in court and that bond was forfeited.

As part of a plea agreement reached between deputy prosecutor Stephanie McLemore and Janette McKinney, chief deputy public defender, Manzanares will complete sex offender treatment in prison and serve a five-year suspended sentence after release.