TEXARKANA, Ark. - A man facing charges of rape, kidnapping, burglary and theft involving an attack on a 15-year-old girl last week has a history of violence toward women.
Aaron David Love, 24, is accused of breaking into the teen's home on Pecan Street in Texarkana, Arkansas, shortly before 10 a.m. on Sept. 1 while her parents were at work, according to a probable cause affidavit. The girl was interviewed that afternoon at the Texarkana Children's Advocacy Center.
The girl reported that she noticed the back door was unlocked as she walked to the bathroom about 9:45 a.m. but thought her mother had simply forgotten to lock it. While in the bathroom, the girl reported she heard noises but attributed the sound to the television.
The girl said Love, who is a relative but not a member of her immediate family, was standing in her room when she came back from the bathroom. Love allegedly grabbed the girl and began choking her from behind causing her to nearly lose consciousness.
Love allegedly pushed the girl into her parent's bedroom and put a jacket over her head while assaulting her. Love allegedly assaulted the girl again in her bedroom and in the family's living room before using items from the girl's home to tie her hands and legs and gag her mouth. Love allegedly used a dust mop on the floor and then briefly walked outside before coming back in and untying the girl's legs.
The girl reported that Love forced her to walk to her parents' spare car, a 2004 Ford Explorer. Love allegedly forced her to put on a face mask and sunglasses and used shirts he found in the house to tie the girl to the car's interior.
The girl reported that Love drove around aimlessly for some time and "didn't appear to know where he was going" before returning again to the house on Pecan Street. Love allegedly left the girl tied up in the Explorer as he walked to the rear of her residence.
While Love was away, the girl managed to free herself and ran to a neighbor's house where police were called. Love left in the Explorer and was arrested the following day in Sevier County, Arkansas. He is now being held in the Miller County jail on charges of rape, kidnapping, residential burglary and theft of property with bond set at $500,000.
Just days before the alleged attack on the 15-year-old, Love was sentenced by Bowie County Court at Law Judge Craig Henry to serve 12 months probation for assaulting a former girlfriend. Love was also sentenced to 15 days in the county jail with credit for 15 days time served for interference with an emergency call stemming from the same incident.
According to a probable cause affidavit in that case, Texarkana, Texas, police received a report from a woman July 27 at approximately 8 a.m. complaining that Love assaulted her at Spring Lake Park after she ran from his car. The woman reported that her nine-month dating relationship with Love had ended about two months before.
"She stated that on this date, Love had been parked outside of her grandmother's residence located at the Yorkshire Apartments with loud music for two hours trying to get her to come outside," the affidavit states.
The woman told officers she got into Love's car so he would not disturb her ailing grandmother. The former girlfriend reported that she and Love drove around and talked and that he became angry when she wanted to end the conversation and go home. Love allegedly refused to let the woman out of the car.
"She said that they parked at Spring Lake Park and she was finally able to get out of the car and ran toward the fence at the baseball fields yelling for someone to call the police," the affidavit states. "She stated that he chased her and grabbed her arm near her elbow, causing her pain."
The woman said she called a friend to come pick her up but Love took her phone before she could call police.
"She stated that she continued to run from him and jumped the fence at the ball fields putting a barrier between them," the affidavit states.
The former girlfriend told police that when her friend arrived, she had to jump back over the fence to get in their truck.
"She stated that when she did this, Love grabbed her by the hair, choked her around the neck with his forearm and struck her on the top of her head with his hands," the affidavit states.
The woman said Love later returned her phone to her grandmother's apartment. Love was released from Texas custody Aug. 28 after pleading guilty to assault with bodily injury family violence and interference with an emergency call.
Love was sentenced to five years in prison in Bowie County in 2015 for assaulting a female jogger at Spring Lake Park in September 2014. According to a probable cause affidavit in that case, Love grabbed a woman he did not know as she was running at the park on the morning of Sept. 4, 2014.
Love, then 20, sexually assaulted the woman with his fingers as he grabbed her from behind with his left arm. The woman told police she fought Love and that her screams caught the attention of a woman walking her dogs. Love ran and jumped into a distinctive beige Jeep Cherokee which he had left running. The woman was able to snap a photo of the Jeep as it sped away.
After the photo was released to the media to aid in the identification of a suspect, a Fouke, Arkansas, police officer contacted Texarkana, Texas, police and told them the Jeep was Love's. A Texarkana, Texas, patrol officer stopped the Jeep and took Love into custody that afternoon. The release of the photo of the Jeep also brought another report to Texarkana, Texas, police.
A woman reported she had been walking early on the morning of Sept. 4, 2014, a couple of hours before the jogger was attacked at Spring Lake Park, along Line Ferry Road in Texarkana, Arkansas, and noticed the distinctive Jeep passed her multiple times before pulling up directly beside her.
"She advised he made a sexual gesture with his tongue, said something to her and drove away," the affidavit states.
Love was indicted by a Bowie County grand jury for sexual assault in January 2015. As part of a plea agreement, which spared the jogger the trauma of testifying, Love pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and received a five-year prison term in June 2015. Court records show Love was released from prison in September 2019.
Both the rape and kidnapping charges now pending against Love in Miller County are punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in an Arkansas prison.