An IQ of 47, and a prison sentence of 100 years

The crime Aaron Hart confessed to was undeniably repellent.

In September, the 18-year-old was charged with sexually assaulting a 7-year-old neighbor boy behind a tool shed in the small east Texas town of Paris. A relative of the victim said she walked outside and saw Hart with his pants pulled down, standing next to the boy.

Police read Hart his Miranda rights, and he quickly admitted his guilt. On Feb. 11, Hart’s court-appointed attorney entered guilty pleas to each of five related felony counts, a jury recommended multiple sentences, and a judge ruled that the prison terms be served consecutively, for a total of 100 years.

That might have been the end of Cause No. 22924 in the 6th Judicial District Court of Lamar County, Texas. Except that now, every court official who had a hand in the case seems to agree that Hart doesn’t belong in prison for the rest of his life.

That’s because Hart has an IQ of 47, and his parents say he functions at the level of a 9-year-old. The boy he confessed to molesting is mentally disabled as well.

What’s more, the judge and the jury never heard any expert testimony about Hart’s mental functioning, his capacity to understand his Miranda rights or his ability to assist in his own defense, because his attorney never subpoenaed any experts.

And since he has been in jail, Hart repeatedly has been raped, according to his parents. The first assault, allegedly by an inmate who is serving a sentence of eight years for sexual indecency with a child, so disturbed the inmate’s mother that she called Hart’s parents to apologize.

“I have nightmares thinking about Aaron in prison and how he is going to survive in there,” said Robert Hart, Aaron’s 70-year-old father. “He’s the type of kid who his whole life people beat him up, took stuff from him, and he wouldn’t defend himself. He can’t read or write. He can’t hardly talk.”

Hart’s case is threatening to once again bring unwelcome outside scrutiny to the criminal justice system in Paris.

The town of 26,000 drew national civil rights protests in 2007 following news reports of a 14-year-old black girl who was sentenced to up to seven years in youth prison for shoving a hall monitor at her high school and a 14-year-old white girl who was given probation for the more serious crime of arson. More racial tensions erupted last year after the slaying of a 24-year-old black man and the arrest of two white men.

In the Aaron Hart case, the issues are not racial -- both Hart and his victim are white. But black civil rights leaders in Paris are advocating on Hart’s behalf, citing concern that he was not treated fairly by the local justice system.

A spokesman for prosecutor Gary Young acknowledged that more serious sexual offenders have received much shorter sentences.

“You don’t want to send [Hart] to prison for life, but you cannot put him back on the street and worry about what he may do to some other kid,” Allan Hubbard, victim’s advocate for the district attorney, told the Paris News. “Speaking for myself and not for the district attorney’s office, this illustrates the need for some system between probation and life in prison for someone like this.”

Hart’s court-appointed attorney, Ben Massar, said he had recommended that Hart plead guilty only because he thought his client would be sentenced to probation.

“To me, this was a punishment case,” Massar said. “And usually, in order to gain the benefit of more lenient punishment, like the probation we were hoping for, juries and judges like it when people plead guilty and take responsibility for their actions.”

The judge who stacked Hart’s terms to run consecutively, Eric Clifford, said he agonizes over his decision, driven by concern that Hart poses a danger to society.

“It was a sad situation. I was about to cry. The jury was crying,” Clifford said. “Everybody looked at everybody like, ‘What the hell do we do?’ The only option we were presented was prison. We don’t have any facilities in the state of Texas for any type of care for somebody like that. That’s the problem. It’s a terrible problem. I don’t know what you do with him other than what we did.”

Hart’s newly appointed attorney is scheduled to go before Clifford today seeking a new trial on the grounds that Hart could not have understood the legal proceedings in his arrest, guilty plea and sentencing. Clifford sounded like he’s inclined to grant the motion.

“I approved [the appellate attorney] to hire all the experts he wanted on competency,” he said. “I said, ‘Whatever you need money-wise, I will sign the order.’ If they can work something out on that appeal, I’m not going to be hard on them.”

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hwitt@tribune.com