BATESVILLE, Ark. – An Independence County woman accused of helping her husband lure a 12-year-old South Carolina girl to Arkansas, where prosecutors say he raped her, has pleaded not guilty and will face a jury in March, court records show.
Sierra Dawn Britten, 28, and Brandon Lee Britten, 31, remain in the Independence County jail, where each is held on a $1 million bond. Both have filed affidavits saying they cannot afford a lawyer, and public defender Thomas Kendrick has been appointed to represent them.
Brandon Britten is charged with rape, internet stalking of a child and traveling for the purpose of an unlawful sex act with a minor. Sierra Britten is charged as an accomplice on all three counts. Rape and internet stalking of a child are Class Y felonies, each punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in prison. Traveling for an unlawful sex act with a minor is a Class B felony carrying five to 20 years.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Drew Smith filed the charges Sept. 15 in Independence County Circuit Court, six days after deputies found the girl in a back bathroom of the Brittens’ home in the northern part of the county. Both cases are assigned to Circuit Judge Tim Weaver.
A docket entry in Sierra Britten’s case shows she waived formal arraignment and entered the not guilty plea Sept. 29. Weaver set a pretrial hearing for Feb. 16, 2027, and a jury trial for March 3-5, 2027. Brandon Britten was ordered to appear in court the same day and Kendrick is listed as his attorney, but no arraignment entry had been posted to his docket as of Wednesday.
Five days before the arraignment, Weaver sealed the probable cause affidavit in both cases at the prosecutor’s request. In a Sept. 24 order, the judge found the state had shown “good cause based upon reasonably specific facts that when considered as a whole outweigh the public’s interest in access” to the affidavit. The order also seals the state’s motion and exempts both documents from the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. It does not say what those facts are.
By then the affidavit had been public for more than a week and its contents had been reported by news outlets in Arkansas, South Carolina and nationally.
According to the affidavit, as reported by White River Now in Batesville before it was sealed, the girl told investigators she had connected with the Brittens online believing she was in a relationship with a 15-year-old boy, and that Sierra Britten posed as the boy’s roommate. After the girl arrived at the home, Brandon Britten took her into a bedroom and sexually assaulted her, the affidavit said.
Sierra Britten told investigators the couple had been in contact with the girl for about a month, that nude images had been exchanged and that she planned her husband’s trip to South Carolina around her work schedule so he could use the car to pick the girl up, according to the affidavit. She gave conflicting accounts of how old she believed the girl was, first saying 18 and later 14.
When deputies arrived at the house Sept. 9, Brandon Britten acknowledged the child was inside and was taken into custody, the affidavit said. Sierra Britten at first refused to identify herself and tried to block deputies from reaching the girl before she was physically removed, according to the affidavit.
The girl, from Woodruff, South Carolina, was reported missing about 5:47 p.m. Sept. 8 after she was last seen walking along Arnold Road toward Highway 101, Spartanburg County Sheriff Bill Rhyne said. Surveillance video showed her climbing into a dark Chevrolet Malibu shortly before 4:30 p.m.
Flock license plate readers picked up the car in Alabama overnight and in Arkansas about 3:20 p.m. the next day, and the registered owner matched information the girl’s family had given investigators, Rhyne said.
“Without this technology, let me make it very clear, we would be at a complete standstill,” Rhyne said.
Spartanburg County deputies called the Independence County Sheriff’s Office about 3 p.m. Sept. 9, and investigators were at the house by 3:15 p.m., Sheriff Shawn Stephens said in a news release. The girl was taken to the Children’s Advocacy Center of Independence County for a forensic interview and medical exam, spent the night at the Arkansas Sheriff’s Youth Ranch and was reunited with her parents the morning of Sept. 10.
Spartanburg County investigators have obtained a kidnapping warrant for Brandon Britten, Rhyne said. Stephens told The Post and Courier his office was working with the FBI on possible federal charges. No federal charges had been announced as of Wednesday.
Circuit Judge Kimberly Edington set the $1 million bonds Sept. 11 after a probable cause hearing and signed the arrest warrants Sept. 15. Deputies served the warrants at the jail that morning. If either Britten posts bond, the conditions bar them from social media, from coming within 1,000 feet of a school zone and from any contact with anyone under 18.
In her affidavit of indigency, filed Sept. 30, Sierra Britten said she works at Walmart for $14.25 an hour, has about $300 in checking and owes $20,000 on a 2020 Chevrolet. Brandon Britten’s affidavit lists him as unemployed.
Neither has a prior felony case in Arkansas, according to the state court portal.
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