Suspended sentences granted in Carthage mugging case

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

May 9—A 36-year-old man received suspended sentences Thursday in a Carthage street mugging case and a Joplin hit-and-run case.

Jermane L. Kelly-Waterford had pleaded guilty Jan. 31 in Jasper County Circuit Court to a reduced charge of felony stealing in the mugging case, in which he had been facing a charge of armed robbery, and to leaving the scene of an accident in the Joplin case.

The defendant's plea agreement dismissed a second count of armed criminal action from the mugging as well as a property damage charge from the collision and counts of burglary and unlawful use of a weapon in a third case he had pending with the court.

At a sentencing hearing Thursday, Judge Dean Dankelson accepted the plea bargain and assessed Kelly-Waterford underlying terms of seven years for stealing and four years for leaving the scene of an accident, with execution of the sentences suspended and the defendant placed on supervised probation for five years.

The stealing conviction pertains to an incident Oct. 16, 2022, when Kelly-Waterford stopped Chance Jacobsen as he was riding a bicycle by the defendant's home on Lyon Street in Carthage.

Kelly-Waterford stopped Jacobsen and demanded his money, implying that he had a gun, according to a probable-cause affidavit. He then pulled the victim's knife out of his pocket and poked him with it while making him strip naked.

He ultimately took Jacobsen's cellphone, wallet, earbuds, chewing tobacco and hat, and slashed his back with the knife, according to the affidavit.

The hit-and-run collision occurred Aug. 5, 2022, when a vehicle Kelly-Waterford was driving struck a parked pickup truck at the Lewis Auto Painting shop building on South Wall Avenue in Joplin, purportedly causing more than $6,000 worth of property damage.