Tammy Curtis, Managing Editor
A Cherokee Village contractor will not see the light of day until he is at least 74 years old. A Fulton County jury heard testimony from witnesses in the Charles Slater, II rape trial in Fulton County Circuit Court on Jan. 30.
Slater was on trial for raping his then 10-year-old half-sister as she slept at her mother, Mary Pickle Kirby’s home in Fulton County. After hearing of Slater’s alleged rape of two other children aged 5-11, she knew the dark family secret she had kept must be told to prevent Slater from ever hurting another child.
The trial began with an introduction by State Prosecuting Attorney Drew Smith. Smith outlined how Slater had snuck into the young girl’s bed when he was visiting his mother and raped her during the night. Smith explained the childhood abuse had taken a significant toll on his half-sister, Ashley Pickle’s life from that day forward and how she was scared to tell her mother because she knew she too was a victim of abuse at the hands of her father.
He clearly explained to the jury the difference between “beyond any doubt “ and “beyond reasonable doubt” to clarify the difference and ensure the jury understood their job in determining guilt or innocence in the case.
R T Starken, Slater’s defense attorney, then introduced himself and explained he did not have to prove anything for his client; the burden of beyond a reasonable doubt fell squarely on the prosecution.
Starken painted a picture of his client as a man who had never had any legal issues until the report was made in Sharp County of two child rapes before the Fulton County case. He claimed Ashley was“jumping on the bandwagon after someone came forward.” He attempted to paint the victim in a very negative light, even calling her a “Troubled young lady who is no angel, a convicted felon and not worthy of being believed for the allegations against my client.”
INVESTIGATORS
Cherokee Village Detective Seargant John Hutchins, who took the initial reports from the two child sex victims in Sharp County was first to testify.
He explained that after determining the crime against Ashely occurred in Fulton County, he directed her the Fulton County Sheriff Department Investigator John Smith.
Smith testified that due to the 25 years of elapsed time, there was no rape kit or search warrants on phones or computers or DNA samples.
ASHLEY PICKLE
The next witness to testify was the victim, Ashley Pickle, who testified she was 10-11 at the time Slater raped her 25 years ago. She explained that Slater was the “cool older brother,” having had a motorcycle and came to visit before and after work and for meals while working with her stepfather at Hardy.
She said when she heard what Slater had allegedly done to the other young victims, she knew she had to finally let the ghosts of the past out and move forward. She went on to speak about how her life was somewhat normal until the night Slater snuck into her room and ran his hand up her leg and into her undergarments. She said after the initial act, she felt “a peculiar sense of confusion” and could not process the concept of what he had done to her. After he left the room, she recalled feeling a sigh of relief, but he came back a second time with an object he had gotten from the bathroom and again raped her, asking if she was a virgin or something to that effect and continually shushing her. She recalled the smell of his cigarette smoke and told her not to tell him what happened. She said, “As the years go by, the words fade, but what happened does not.”
When asked why she didn’t tell her mother initially, she explained she was a public figure, and from the outside, they had a perfect family, but on the inside, it was something much grimmer. She was always closer to her father. Ashley told the jury her parents fought a lot, often becoming physical, and she felt humiliated at that age to have something so traumatic happen to her. She explained that she felt a great deal of shame and had a low self-worth that led her down a dark path. From picking bad partners to drug addiction, her destructive path continued well into adulthood when she eventually went to prison for some of her offenses while in the throes of addiction.
She made no offer to blame but said after she was in counseling, she realized the abuse had led her down that path. “My choices were my own; I made them,” she said of her past lifestyle.
Ashley told the court she has been clean for 5 years, has her nursing license, completed rehab, and is on a board of directors at one of the facilities. She explained that despite her later life choices and eventual felony charges, the 11-year-old child who was raped was not a drug addict or felon.
“I don’t believe you build a life by tearing others down. I had to row the boat I was in,” she said. She had stopped all contact with Slater, and when her father passed away, he called her and tried to get her to come down. “He propositioned me and complained to me about his home life and drinking problems,” she said in disgust.
As she was testifying, Slater continually snickered and smiled from his seat. “I am here because I never thought he would do this to those children,” she explained.
STARKEN CROSS OF ASHLEY
Starken asked why she didn’t scream out or tell her parents the night of the rape. She explained her mother’s mental state and said she had become suicidal during the divorce from her father, Carl Pickle.
She then was asked by Starken to provide the court details of her felony charges, as if she was the one on trial, despite having served her time and being five years clean. She gladly did and said, “Going to prison was the best thing that happened to me,” explaining it was the single act that helped get her life back on track and woke her up to the past that her drug addiction had covered for so many years.
Starken asked why she had come to stay with the Slater family during the ice storm. She explained they were out of power, she had just come home from the hospital with two premature babies who were on oxygen, and that she knew Slater’s wife Heather would be there, along with a “multitude of other family members.” Putting her new babies first, she did what she had to, and explained that Heather helped her with the infants.
REDIRECT BY SMITH OF ASHLEY
She was asked to clarify the reason she didn’t scream out. “At that age, there is no explaining or knowing why that happened. I was in shock, and she was scared it would get her big brother in trouble,” explaining how, at that time, she looked up to him until the act.
She explained she never told Charles’s wife because she felt she was the only victim and had bore the years of pain and humiliation alone. It was only after hearing of the other two victims that she knew she had to tell before he could ruin any more lives.
The following two witnesses were Charle’s other two victims in the Sharp County cases. The girl’s testimony revealed how Charles would gradually do things like touching when he was intoxicated.
The oldest of the two said the abuse began when she, too, was about 11. Like Ashley, she kept the dirty secret until she found out about the third victim. The girl explained her abuse began when she was much younger, around 5-7.
The last episode of the abuse occurred on Christmas, and the victim reported the abuse; when Charles’s wife found out during a family Christmas gathering, and after the company left, she made Charles leave home.
CROSS OF SECOND VICTIM
Starken asked the girl if it was possible Charles was simply hugging her, which she adamantly denied—asking if her mother had ever had the “inappropriate, touching talk” with her. She explained she had from teachers. “I was just embarrassed by the fact I let it happen,” she said.
He also asked if her motive was to side with Charles wife for money. “No, sir, my only motive is to stop this. I thought it ended with me.” During the redirect by Smith, the victim explained very clearly the charges were never about money. “It absolutely terrifies me that this happens in this world,” she said.
VICTIM THREE
The youngest of the victims said her abuse began between the ages of 5-7 years old and in the bathroom after she would shower. She explained her rape and said at that age she didn’t even know if it was a normal thing that families do. She explained that she did tell him to stop. She explained she kept it to herself for fear of sending him to jail and at the time, had no idea he had raped other young girls.
After the state rested, Starken requested a motion to strike the second and third victim testimony because the “prior bad acts,” were not relevant to the case that was being deliberated.
Smith explained the relevancy in their testimony was to establish that Charles had a propensity to go after victims who were those young ages, citing the “Pedophile exception.”
Circuit Judge Tim Weaver overruled Starken’s motion and explained that their testimony proves a continual pattern. He said it would be left up to the jury to decide whether or not they believed it.
DEFENSE BEGINS
Becky Slater, Charles’ Stepmother
Charles’s stepmother, Becky Slater, was the first to testify and explained she met him when he was living with her and his father in 1999. She went on to say that, living in Hot Springs, they saw Slater about once a year and testified that while she didn’t believe he was an alcoholic, she knew he had a problem.
CROSS OF STEPMOTHER
Smith established that Charles had no regular contact with her and his father due to the distance between their homes.
CHARLES’ MOTHER, Mary Pickle Kirby
Charles mother explained her family moved to Arkansas from Alabama, living the house where the rape occurred in 1999 when Ashley was 10 years old. She maintained her son never stayed at the home or been alone with Ashley, so he could not have raped her. She went on to place blame on Ashley for filing the charges against Charles, alleging she is mad because her mother won’t cut contact with one of her exes with whom she has a child. She said they had a good relationship but now that Ashley has disowned her.
She also alleges her daughter asked her to stop sending Bible verses to Ashley’s children. Mary also went on to say the drawing of the setup of Ashley’s bedroom at the time of the rape was incorrect.
She said Ashley was the “most difficult of all of them [her children]”. She explained that her son, Charles was much more “reliable”. She then touted his behavior during the ice storm in allowing Ashley and her newborn twins to stay in the home with him. “Those babies wouldn’t be here today to be teenagers if it wasn’t for Charles.”
As tears fell from her eyes, Mary went on to explain the tremendous amount of physical, sexual and mental abuse she endured, often in front of her children, at the hands of Ashley’s father, Carl Pickle.
She explained she did not divorce him because she was a Christian woman. Pickle eventually divorced Mary. Ashley and one of her sisters went to live with him after the divorce.
Cross of MARY PICKLE KIRBY
Smith ensured the jury understood that despite Mary alleging her son was never alone nor did he stay at their home during the time frame, he was there to ride to and from work with his stepfather each day. He also restated Mary’s testimony about Charles visiting after work and eating supper with them. When asked if she had ever been informed of his alcohol abuse, Mary said, “ I had known that he had that a long time ago.”
He also explained the odd, nearly unbelievable claim that Ashley filed the rape charges because she was texting her ex and then recruited the other two victims also to make the same allegations. “Yes, I believe that with all of my heart.”
Smith also asked if the abuse she suffered at the hands of her ex-husband was so severe, why she didn’t report it to the police. She said she did. “I reported it to Ernie Rose, but it is not on paper,” she then said there was an order of protection.
Charles smiled repeatedly while watching his mother testify.
CHARLES SLATER,II
Slater then took the stand in his defense. When asked if he committed the rape he was accused of, he said, “Impossible. I could not have existed in two different places at the same time.” He then explained at the time his mother and stepfather moved to Hardy from Alabama, he had his own home and was helping them remodel his mother’s home. Despite his mother’s testimony, Charles explained he couldn’t stand to be around his stepfather any more than he had to because he had witnessed his abuse of his mother.
He then went on to deny being at the home, staying the night and stated at that time he was dating a woman and was not a babysitter for his little sister, Ashley, so he wouldn’t have been at the home alone with her.
Charles went on to deny the allegations made against him. “If I still had a pulse, with the people my wife is related to, I would be in a body bag. Absolutely not.”
He testified his marriage to Heather was “hunky dory” at the time the first two victims came forward with their allegations.
He explained in statements his wife would later adamantly deny in her testimony that she was pressing all the charges because she found out he was cheating on her. He even went on to claim to have even been invited over after he was kicked out of the home for “Yahtzee Night.” “I think I was about to be able to move back in,” he said.
When asked if he was ever alone with Ashley, Slater took a notably long pause before answering.” I think when I was 10, I changed her diaper.”
He continued to paint himself favorably, claiming to have pulled his sister out of the drug house and made her work with him on a construction site all day.
Despite the testimony of the other victims, he claimed he did not learn of the claims of sexual abuse and rape until he got a text from his wife on Jan. 29 with claims about his affair. He was arrested the first of three times in February 2023.
He, too, went on to claim the motive of the allegations was for his wife to gain money and get “80 percent of a quarter of a million dollars in assets.”
It is important to note that Slater never bonded out of jail after his second arrest on Ashley’s charges when the bond was set much higher than the first arrest.
CROSS OF CHARLES SLATER
Smith pointed out that despite the fact it was hard to believe that he had a history of being a lying and cheating alcoholic, yet had not heard of any of the sexual allegations until he was arrested.
He denied texting Ashley after her father’s death and concocted a story that all three women and his wife got together to set him up out of spite for his cheating to gain his money.
HEATHER SLATER
She explained they had ups and downs in their marriage and that he struggled with alcoholism. She said Ashley, who she hadn’t seen at family functions in years, reached out to her after she reported her husband for the child sexual charges.
As she testified, Charles smirked and smiled during her tearful testimony. When asked if she had made the report for money. “I would never do that,” she said, crying.
She further testified that after learning what her husband had allegedly done, she kicked him out of the house.
Through the years, she has tried to get him to attend AA meetings. Heather said that when confronted, he told her, “He told me if I were to report him, I would go down with him, and I have,” she said of losing her teaching license due to waiting to report the alleged crimes.
As she wept, he could be seen smirking. Heather testified that when asked about it he said, “I blacked out, I couldn’t remember. It was the alcohol.”
She explained that the allegations were never about money but said, “I believe if Charlie goes to prison, I deserve all the assets. I have a daughter to raise, bills to pay, and a career to build.”
JURY IS OUT
Ultimately, the case went to the jury at 4:40 p.m. and they returned around 5:10 p.m. with a verdict. The seven-man, five-women jury returned with the unanimous guilty verdict and were sent back to deliberate the sentence.
Judge Weaver explained the possible sentences for a Class Y felony is 40 years to life, with a minimum of 25 years.
Smith explained that regardless of the sentence they decide upon, he will be required to complete 70 percent of his sentence.
In less than 15 minutes, the jury returned with a unanimous forty-year sentence.
Ashley then gave a powerful victim impact statement, thanking the jury. “Thank you for listening and allowing me to address this. From the bottom of my heart, I am incredibly grateful for your time. It has changed my life.”
Slater addressed the jury and audience saying “Watch your women. They will come after you without a reason and send you to prison.”
He then passed a note to his mother. Members of the family said they felt it might be instructions on ensuring assets were in his mother’s name and not his wife’s. Family members explained she has already allegedly began to do during their divorce to prevent her from obtaining them. .
Ashley was elated and said she felt the relief of 25 years of pain lifted with the verdict and said she feels the strongest she has ever felt with Charles being put behind bars for the crime.
With a renewed faith in the justice system, she said, “One down, two more to go.”
Slater has two cases in Sharp County set for jury trial on Feb. 18
