Rural Neosho man handed prison term for intercourse with minor

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

Apr. 17—NEOSHO, Mo. — A Newton County judge assessed a 28-year-old defendant five years in prison Wednesday for having sexual intercourse with a 16-year-old girl and getting her pregnant.

James D.S. Sturgeon, of rural Neosho, changed his plea to guilty in Newton County Circuit Court on a charge of second-degree statutory rape in a plea agreement calling for a five-year sentence. He had been facing the possibility of up to seven years on the charge.

Circuit Judge Kevin Selby accepted the plea bargain and assessed Sturgeon the agreed-upon sentence.

The girl purportedly told investigators during an interview Sept. 22 at the Children's Center in Joplin that Sturgeon had sexual intercourse with her in his camper and in a nursing mother's room at a Walmart, and that she subsequently became pregnant. A probable-cause affidavit states that she did test positive for pregnancy.