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All three members of a Yellville family facing felony charges in Marion County Circuit Court entered not guilty pleas Monday as new court filings revealed additional details about the allegations against them.
Steven M. Manson Jr., 35, appeared via Zoom from the Marion County Detention Center, where he has been held since his March arrest on rape, incest and sexual assault charges. His father, Steven L. Manson, 56, and Manson Jr.’s stepdaughter and alleged girlfriend, Dezarae Kennedy, 19, appeared in person.
All three were represented by Eugene Clifford of Zenith Law in Little Rock. Clifford arrived late to the hearing.
Defense waives bond hearing, signals fight ahead
Clifford waived a bond revocation hearing for Manson Jr. that prosecutors had requested be set for Monday’s session, telling the court he needed time to review discovery on the newest charges.
But Clifford made clear the defense intends to contest the case. He acknowledged the court would likely be reluctant to set a bond but told Judge Andrew Bailey he believes discovery will show Manson Jr. “has a strong chance of being found not guilty.”
Manson Jr.’s bond on the most recent case remains at $500,000. He has not posted bond and remains in custody at the Marion County jail.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Russo handled the state’s case Monday. Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge was present in the courtroom but did not speak during the proceedings.
All three defendants are set to return to court June 23.
Kennedy appears in court
Kennedy appeared in court Monday and was visibly upset at being referred to by her previous name in court and was heard complaining to Manson Sr. about it. Kennedy legally changed her last name to Manson earlier this year, as the Observer previously reported.
The March charges against all three defendants stem from a March 7 incident at the family’s residence on Marion County Road 8054. According to court filings, the victim in that case was 18 or 19 years old. All three Mansons are charged in connection with her assault. Kennedy faces charges of rape, second-degree sexual assault and coercion. Manson Sr. faces charges of terroristic threatening, conspiracy and coercion.
The March assault occurred after Manson Jr. had already bonded out of jail on the child rape, kidnapping and firearms charges filed in December 2025. He was released on a combined $350,000 bond with an ankle monitor. Within three months of his release, prosecutors allege, a second victim was raped at the same residence.
Kennedy’s bond was set at $25,000. Manson Sr.’s bond was set at $50,000.
Court filings and independent sources reviewed by the Observer have described Kennedy as a victim of grooming by Manson Jr. since she was 15 years old, when he was prohibited from being around her.
Neighbors warned the sheriff for months
Monday’s court appearance came against the backdrop of an ongoing Observer investigation that has revealed how extensively the Marion County Sheriff’s Office was warned about the Manson family before the most serious charges were filed.
Neighbors on Marion County Road 8054, who have spoken to the Observer on the condition of anonymity because they fear violent retaliation, described 18 months of terror living near the Manson family. They reported threats to kill them, animals roaming in squalor, stolen property and a pattern of intimidation they said went largely unaddressed by law enforcement.
Sheriff Gregg Alexander kept a handwritten log documenting 16 calls for service from one neighbor alone between November 2024 and June 2025. Deputies responded to reports of stolen animals, threats, road blockades and a hit-and-run that one deputy determined appeared to be staged. In one incident, deputies encountered a young girl being forced into the woods by adults for more than two hours, falling, crying and begging to stop.
Neighbors said they offered the sheriff’s office audio of that same girl outside the Manson residence at night, alone and in distress. The neighbors said deputies told them they did not need it.
Instead of acting against the Mansons, the sheriff’s office filed criminal charges against one of the neighbors who had been calling for help, as previously reported.
The first rape charge against Manson Jr. was filed Dec. 5, 2025.
Separately, an Illinois resident who had lived near the Manson family for years emailed Alexander directly in September 2025, providing documentation of Manson Jr.’s criminal history and warning him about the family’s behavior. A follow-up email went to a sheriff’s office deputy in December 2025.
Alexander responded to the Observer’s reporting on Facebook with a statement in which he said he was saddened by the coverage. He praised his deputies’ work and cited $875,000 in total bonds across the Manson cases. He did not address what his office did with the warnings or why a neighbor was charged instead of the family she was reporting.
New filings add detail, seek to consolidate cases
Amended criminal informations filed March 19 by Russo added habitual offender enhancements to two of Manson Jr.’s earlier cases, 45CR-25-117 and 45CR-25-118. Both were originally filed Dec. 5, 2025.
The amended filings were not uploaded to the public court record system at the time they were filed. The Observer downloaded every publicly available document in the Manson cases on March 23 while reporting its initial investigative piece. The amended information was not among them.
The enhancements cite Manson Jr.’s prior convictions for two or more violent felonies in the State of Illinois. If convicted on the most serious charges as a habitual offender, the only available sentence under Arkansas law is life in prison without parole.
The amended filing in 45CR-25-118 charges Manson Jr. with rape, a Class Y felony, and sexual assault in the second degree, a Class B felony. The factual basis states that on Dec. 4, 2025, Investigator Lynn Shepard with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office took a report from the defendant’s wife, who said Manson Jr. had admitted during an argument to having sexual relations with a minor female victim under the age of 14.
The victim’s mother then asked the child about the allegations. The victim confirmed them and disclosed the defendant had sodomized her, according to the filing. The rape charge states the defendant engaged in sexual intercourse or deviate sexual intercourse with the child at least twice on or about Nov. 20, 2025.
The amended filing in 45CR-25-117 charges Manson Jr. with two counts of kidnapping, a Class Y felony; possession of firearms by certain persons, a Class B felony; and two counts of terroristic threatening, a Class D felony.
That filing states Lt. Silas Gibson with the sheriff’s office took a report on Dec. 4, 2025, from a victim who said Manson Jr. had threatened to kill her with a knife during an argument at the family’s residence on Marion County Road 8054. He also allegedly threatened to shoot her minor daughter in the head and his own father in the chest if they attempted to leave the house or tell anyone about what had happened to the child.
The victim told investigators Manson Jr. was in possession of a pink camouflage 20-gauge shotgun during the argument and threats. The victim also stated that after the confrontation, the defendant “passed out,” allowing her and her minor daughter to leave the residence.
A search warrant executed at the home recovered the pink camouflage shotgun along with three additional firearms and accessories. Manson Jr. is a convicted felon from Illinois with four or more prior felony offenses and is prohibited by law from possessing a firearm.
Russo also filed a motion to consolidate the two cases for trial under Rule 21.1 of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure. The motion argues the charges in both cases constitute a single criminal episode because the Dec. 3 kidnapping and threats occurred after the minor victim’s mother confronted Manson Jr. about the alleged rape and sexual assault.
Both cases involve the same victim, the motion states.
A case that spans four states
Manson Jr. now faces six Marion County case numbers spanning October 2025 through March 2026. The charges range from failure to comply with sex offender registration to rape, incest and sexual assault, with habitual offender enhancements on the most serious counts.
He is a Level II registered sex offender who was previously convicted in Illinois of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim between the ages of 13 and 16. He served seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
He also faces a six-count animal abuse case in Greene County, Missouri, stemming from a May 2025 incident in Springfield in which approximately 130 animals were seized. He failed to appear in that case. A separate felony case in McHenry County, Illinois, for failure to report a crash resulting in injury remains pending after Manson Jr. stopped appearing in court.
The Observer’s ongoing investigation into the Manson cases has documented a pattern of bond releases on escalating charges, warnings from Illinois residents to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office that preceded the most serious allegations, and court records describing Kennedy as both Manson Jr.’s stepdaughter and girlfriend. A second victim was allegedly assaulted after Manson Jr. walked out of jail on bond.
