Career felon headed back to prison after latest plea deal with Sebastian County Prosecuting Attorney

A 57-year-old Fort Smith man who has been banging out felonies like clockwork as far back as 1994 in headed into the Arkansas Department of Corrections system for the seventh time in a two-and-a-half decades after a negotiated plea deal in Sebastian County Circuit Court last week.

Ricky Gene Childers faced a number of charges after his latest arrest for Assault in the Second Degree and also picked up concurrent county jail sentences on Third Degree Escape and Unlawfully Transferring Stolen Property to a Pawn Broker charges.

In total Childers received five years in state prison after all pending charges were bundled concurrently. He also received a ten year suspended sentence, was tagged as a habitual criminal but avoided a petition to revoke enhancement to his sentence,

During Childer's last arrest in December he was charged with Possession of Meth and Paraphernalia, Felony Robbery, Absconding, Petition to Revoke, Illegal Transfer to a Pawnbroker and various misdemeanor charges. As part of the plea dead the Robbery was downgraded to an Assault charge.