Rural Carthage man waives hearing on sex offender registration charge
May 9—A 45-year-old sex offender residing near Carthage waived a preliminary hearing Thursday on an alleged registration violation.
Billy D. Thornburg waived the hearing in Jasper County Circuit Court on a count of failure to register a scooter he bought with the Jasper County sheriff's office and was ordered to make an initial appearance in a trial division June 11.
A probable-cause affidavit states that Thornburg, who was convicted of child molestation in 2014 in Bates County, is required to register with the sheriff's office in the county in which he resides and that registration includes the vehicles he possesses. A deputy checking with the defendant Dec. 21 learned that he had not registered a scooter that he told the deputy he bought at the start of the summer in 2023.
