A woman who received probation last year for helping a teenage girl leave her Tennessee home to work as a prostitute in Texarkana, Ark., was sentenced to nine years in prison Tuesday.
Ashley Elizabeth Hatfield, 29, was sentenced to a six-year term of felony probation in Miller County in April 2016 for transporting a minor for prohibited sexual contact. At the time of sentencing she was ordered to register as a sex offender, instructed to report to her probation appointments, and made aware of her responsibility to let officials know if she moved or changed jobs.
Approximately four months later, a motion to revoke Hatfield's probation was filed and a new charge of failing to register as a sex offender was filed against her. In January, Hatfield's original probation for transporting the minor was reinstated and she was sanctioned with a 120-day stay in the Miller County jail. At the same time, Hatfield was assessed a second probation of five years for failing to register as a sex offender.
Just a few months later, in April, petitions to revoke Hatfield's two probations were filed when officials determined she had moved and could not be located. Hatfield was subsequently arrested that month and has been in the Miller County jail since.
Hatfield appeared Tuesday before Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson with representation by Texarkana lawyer John Pickett. Hatfield pleaded guilty to the newest charge of failing to register as a sex offender and received a three-year term. Hatfield admitted the allegations listed in the petitions to revoke her probations were true as well.
Johnson revoked both probations and sentenced Hatfield to six years in prison for transporting a minor across state lines for prohibited sexual contact. Johnson also sentenced Hatfield to three years for the failure to register as a sex offender, the offense for which she had received probation in January. Johnson ordered Hatfield to serve the two three-year terms concurrently but consecutively to the six-year term, for a total nine-year sentence.
Hatfield first came to the attention of investigators with the Texarkana, Ark., Police Department in August 2015 when investigators in Tennessee contacted them about a teen runaway, according to a probable cause affidavit used to create the following account. The teen and Hatfield both had posts advertising prostitution in Texarkana on backpage.com.
"Hatfield was very influential in getting the (juvenile) out of Memphis," the affidavit states.
Members of TAPD determined Hatfield had rented a room at Quality Inn on North State Line Avenue and that she had a young friend staying with her. Officers watched as Hatfield and the girl left the Quality Inn with two men in a small car with Tennessee plates. Officers pulled the car over on State Line Avenue in Texarkana, Ark.
Hatfield was taken into police custody, and the girl was placed in state custody.