Man sentenced to 50 years for sex crimes

LABEL: KIDNAPPED TWO GIRLS

By Andrea L. Buchanan ~ Southeast Missourian

JACKSON, Mo. -- The Evans sisters used to share a room at the end of a mobile home in Scott City, Mo. The foot of their bed, covered by a quilt with a flower pattern, jutted under a window that wouldn't lock.

One chilly night in November 2000, a subdued stranger named Samuel Farrow Jr. raised the window from the outside and stole one of the girls.

In April, Farrow, 24, was found guilty of 11 of 16 charges stemming from that night and another night four months earlier, including kidnapping and forcible rape, forcible sodomy and furnishing pornographic material to a minor.

Tuesday, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

His crimes involved two girls, the first 6 years old, the other 4. Both lived at different times in the same mobile home in Scott City, and both had slept in the same bedroom.

Farrow's attorney, Al Lowes, maintains that Farrow, whose intelligence has been measured as below average, wasn't competent to stand trial or understand the rights he was waiving when he gave a videotaped confession.

Tuesday, Circuit Court Judge John Grimm rejected defense motions for a new trial and handed down what amounts to a 50-year sentence in the state penitentiary.

Grimm said he couldn't begin to imagine how difficult the ordeal has been for the families of both girls.

"At the same time, I have a great deal of empathy for the Farrow family," he said.

Farrow's family begged the judge to consider alternatives to prison.

"We're not saying he should be out walking around. We're saying he should be in a mental hospital," Lowes said.

The attorney said he didn't dispute and couldn't defend what Farrow did to the little girls.

"It was wrong and everybody in society knows it ... except in this instance, Sammy Farrow," Lowes said.

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle requested the maximum sentence, eight consecutive life sentences.

"Every now and then ... a case calls out for the maximum sentence," Swingle said. "The court needs to make sure this man never walks the streets again."

Hope Evans, the mother of the 4-year-old victim, asked Grimm to consider the maximum sentence possible.

"Please, don't ever let this man out," she said.

Moved from Arkansas

In August 2000, the Evans family moved from Arkansas to Cape Girardeau when Kevin Evans was offered a good-paying job with Procter & Gamble.

He and his wife and their three children -- two girls plus an 18-month-old son -- moved into a rental trailer in Scott City.

The plan was to save money and finish a degree in criminal justice at Southeast Missouri State University, then probably move back to Arkansas to look for a job as a cop.

Farrow changed all that when he kidnapped their youngest daughter, raped her at his apartment in Jackson and dropped her off in front of a house in the country. The homeowner found her sitting in his driveway the same day.

By the end of that year, the Evans family moved back to Arkansas wishing they had never crossed the state line.

Tuesday, Kevin and Hope Evans were in Jackson, Mo., to see Farrow sentenced for kidnapping and raping their daughter and for similar crimes committed against another child.

Rebekah Yamnitz had been friends with "Sammy" Farrow. He even baby-sat her children, including her 6-year-old daughter, who had slept in the far bedroom under the window that wouldn't lock.

It wasn't until she moved to another city that she learned exactly what had happened to her daughter. Four months before the Evans girl was abducted, Yamnitz's daughter was taken from the same window. Farrow molested the girl and then dropped her off in her front yard.

Yamnitz submitted a letter to the judge with a similar request for life in prison.

Basically, Farrow received a 25-year sentence for each girl and will probably serve at least 45 years in prison before being eligible for parole.

Technically, he received multiple 25-year sentences for sexual crimes involving each girl, as well as two 15-year sentences on kidnapping charges. However, the sentences involving the 4-year-old victim were to run concurrently. Similarly, the sentences involving the 6-year-old victim were concurrent.

After the sentencing, Yamnitz collapsed on the courthouse steps, overwhelmed by emotion.

Predator label

Swingle explained the sentence to the victims' families and told them that, because of the nature of his crimes, Farrow wouldn't be eligible for parole for at least 45 years.

"Fifty years is a long time," he said, "almost long enough that there's no light at the end of the tunnel."

As an added precaution, Swingle said he contacted the state Attorney General's office notifying them that Farrow fits the criteria of a sexually violent predator.

When Farrow comes up for parole, the attorney general can file a motion to have Farrow committed to mental health facility instead of being released.

"He won't fall through the cracks," Swingle said.

abuchanan@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160