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OGDEN — A Weber County man is going to prison for 25 years to life after admitting to sexually abusing three children in Roy.
The charges also prompted the reopening of a decades-old case in Clinton, where Hooper resident Jack Eric Arnell, 35, was accused of sexually abusing a girl who was between the ages of 3 and 5 at the time.
As part of a plea deal, Arnell admitted guilt to one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and two counts of attempted sodomy of a child, both first-degree felonies, in August. His other 12 charges were dismissed.
On Oct. 1, Arnell was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the sex abuse charge and 10 years to life for each of the attempted sodomy charges, ordered to run concurrently. Restitution will be determined at a hearing scheduled for March 2025.
In February, a woman reported to police that her three children had been sexually abused by their landlord for four years, according to charging documents.
The children — ages 10, 12 and 15 at the time Arnell was arrested — were taken to the Weber Children's Justice Center, where they told forensic investigators that Arnell sexually abused them.
Charges say Arnell would give the children gifts including a computer, video games and money "as a way of keeping this between them."
The 12-year-old told police Arnell did some "pretty wicked stuff to me and my siblings," charges say, and she described incidents of sexual abuse while their mother was not home.
Arnell was on a business trip when the abuse was reported, and police conducted interviews with the children while executing a search warrant on his house. As soon as Arnell returned from his trip, he was arrested at the Salt Lake City International Airport and later charged with 15 felonies — five counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, seven counts of sodomy on a child and three counts of forcible sodomy, all first-degree felonies.
In 2022, Arnell was investigated on child abuse allegations involving a different child in Clinton, but prosecutors determined they didn't have enough evidence to charge him, said Clinton Assistant Police Chief Matt Fawbush.
The new information from the most recent case has spurred the reopening of the old one, Fawbush said.
New charging documents say Arnell sexually abused a female child, from 2010 to 2013, when the girl was between 3 and 5 years old. He is facing three counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, in that case.
