Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 23 for Zachary Allen Archambault, 25, who was found guilty by a jury on Thursday of Class AA felony continuous sexual abuse of a child.

Archambault was caught in the act of sexually abusing the girl, who was in her early teens at the time, on Aug. 23, 2020, and admitted that he had sexually assaulted her numerous times, starting when she was as young as 12.

There were problems regarding evidence that had not been turned over to the defense as required. The girl was interviewed in September 2020 at the Northern Plains Children’s Advocacy Center. Minot Police Detective Aaron Bowles observed the forensic interview but never turned the interview in to the state’s attorney’s office. Prosecutors only learned at trial that the interview had ever taken place. Bowles informed prosecutors about the interview after defense attorney Eric Baumann said during his opening argument to the jury that no forensic interview of the child had ever been done. Bowles was put back on the witness stand and testified that he had simply forgotten to submit the child’s interview into evidence. The child did not say during the interview that Archambault had sexually assaulted her. She testified at trial on Thursday that she had felt uncomfortable talking with the interviewer about the subject.

Bowles arranged for DNA samples to be taken from Archambault after he was arrested, but no DNA evidence was taken from the girl on Aug. 23, 2020. Bowles testified that he did not believe this was necessary since Archambault had confessed and an eye witness had caught him in the act of assaulting the child. Bowles believed that it was not necessary to put the child through the trauma of a sexual assault examination at the hospital.

Baumann pointed out the problems with the evidence and also pointed out that the woman who caught Archambault with the young teen was not put on the stand to testify at the trial and the prosecution had not provided any explanation as to why that was the case. According to written arguments filed before the trial, there had been difficulty locating the witness and getting her to testify.

Baumann also had argued that there was evidence that a family member of the girl had lied in a social media Facebook posting about a diary that the girl had supposedly written, even though the girl testified that there was no diary. Baumann also argued that Archambault’s history of mental health problems might have made him make a false confession to Bowles.

Prosecutor Leah Viste argued that it was a simple case and Archambault had confessed to his guilt.

The jury of 10 women and two men were sent to deliberate Thursday morning. After about two hours they sent a note to Judge Gary Lee telling him they had a hung jury and they would not be able to reach a unanimous verdict. A short time later they asked to review testimony that Bowles had given. The judge arranged for the jury to come back into the courtroom and Bowles’ testimony was replayed in the open courtroom. The jury then returned to deliberations and delivered a unanimous guilty verdict a short time later.