Defendant bound over in Joplin robbery case

Jeff Lehr, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·1 min read

Apr. 11—A 22-year-old Joplin man was ordered bound over for trial at the conclusion of a preliminary hearing Thursday on charges that he turned another man's gun on him and robbed him of both the weapon and his Tracfone.

Judge Joseph Hensley decided at the hearing in Jasper County Circuit Court that Andrew M. Widener should stand trial on counts of first-degree robbery and armed criminal action and set his initial appearance in a trial division on April 30.

Andrew Brown, the alleged victim in the case, told the court that he saw the defendant Feb. 16 knocking on the door of a neighbor in Brown's apartment building on Connor Avenue. No one was answering the door and it was a cold, damp day outside, so he decided to invite Widener in for coffee, he said.

Eventually, the course of their conversation in his apartment turned to firearms, and Brown showed Widener his .38-caliber special after removing the bullets, he said. That proved to be a mistake, he told the court.

"I let him get the drop on me," Brown said.

He said that as he turned his back, Widener picked up one of the bullets, put it in the gun, pointed it at him and said: "Now, it's loaded and I'm keeping it."

Brown said Widener then demanded he give him his phone, threatening to shoot him if he did not, and backed out of the apartment with the gun pointed at him. He said the defendant was in such a hurry to leave that he forgot his backpack in which police found mail identifying who he was.

"In hindsight, I feel like I was manipulated," Brown said.