Branson man to stand trial for attempted robbery, assault in Carthage

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

Apr. 16—A Jasper County inmate's account in court Thursday of how he was forced to strip naked and was beaten at knifepoint three months ago in Carthage sufficed to get his assailant ordered to stand trial on attempted robbery charges.

Associate Judge Joe Hensley decided at the conclusion of a preliminary hearing in Jasper County Circuit Court that there was probable cause for Jonathan W. Robinette, 39, of Branson, to stand trial on counts of first-degree attempted robbery, armed criminal action and third-degree assault.

Just one of three victims in the January assault and robbery at a residence in the 900 block of West Chestnut Street in Carthage testified at the hearing.

Kyle Metz, 31, currently an inmate at the Jasper County Jail in Carthage, told the court that he went to the residence on Jan. 11 to sell a female friend $20 worth of methamphetamine. He ended up going to a store to get some cigarettes for her, and when he returned, he found himself being asked by Robinette what he had done with $600 that supposedly was missing.

Metz said Robinette had a knife that he put to his throat and his chest and forced him to take his clothes off in an apparent attempt to see if the he had the money hidden on him. Robinette then began assaulting him, he told the court.

"I was punched, and I was kicked, and that's all I remember," Metz testified.

He acknowledged under cross-examination by public defender Kathleen Miller that Robinette never cut or stabbed him with the knife but hit him several times instead. While he testified that $15 was taken from him during the beating, he admitted that he did not see who took it.

Metz also acknowledged on cross-examination that he is currently enrolled in the local drug court program pending sentencing on a felony theft charge.

The probable-cause affidavit filed in the case alleges that Robinette made two other males at the residence take off their clothes at the point of a knife and that he took debit cards, a Social Security card and other items from one of them. But neither testified at the hearing, forcing Assistant Prosecutor Taylor Haas to amend the original charge of first-degree robbery to attempted robbery prior to the hearing.

The date for the defendant's initial appearance on the charges in a trial division of the court had not been entered into the court record by late Thursday afternoon.