Weber County landlord sentenced to 25 years to life in child sex abuse case

OGDEN — A Weber County man faces 25 years in prison after admitting to sexually abusing three children in Roy.

The indictment also led to the reopening of a decades-old case in Clinton, where 35-year-old Hooper resident Jack Eric Arnell was accused of sexually abusing a girl who was between three and five years old at the time.

As part of a plea agreement, Arnell pleaded guilty in August to one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and two counts of attempted sodomy of a child, both first-degree felonies. His other twelve charges were dismissed.

On October 1, Arnell was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on the sexual abuse charge and 10 years in prison on each concurrent charge of attempted sodomy. The refund will be decided 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 of Arnell’s arrest – were taken to the Weber Children’s Justice Center, where they told forensic investigators that Arnell had sexually abused them.

According to the charges, Arnell would give the children gifts, including a computer, video games and money, “to keep this safe between each other.”

The 12-year-old told police that Arnell “did some pretty nasty things to me and my siblings,” the indictment says, and she described incidents of sexual abuse while her mother was away from home.

Arnell was on a business trip when the abuse was reported, and police conducted interviews with the children while executing a search warrant at his home. As soon as Arnell returned from his trip, he was arrested at Salt Lake City International Airport and later charged with 15 felonies – five counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, seven counts of sodomy of a child and three counts of forcible sodomy. all first degree felonies.

In 2022, Arnell was investigated for child abuse allegations against another child in Clinton, but prosecutors concluded they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him, Clinton Deputy Police Chief Matt Fawbush said.

The new information from the latest case spurred the reopening of the old case, 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 faces three counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, in this case a first-degree felony.