Joplin man pleads down to misdemeanors in assault of girlfriend
May 20—A 19-year-old Joplin man pleaded guilty Thursday to a reduced charge in a felony domestic assault case and was placed on probation with a restitution order.
Karson Henry pleaded guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court to misdemeanor counts of domestic assault and property damage in a plea agreement with the prosecutor's office. He had been scheduled for a preliminary hearing on a felony count of second-degree domestic assault.
Associate Judge Joseph Hensley accepted the plea deal and assessed Henry 60 days in jail, with execution of the sentence suspended and the defendant placed on unsupervised probation for two years with an order to pay $295 in restitution.
Henry grabbed, choked and punched his girlfriend in the nose March 23 at her residence near Carthage, according to a probable-cause affidavit. He purportedly wanted her to come to his house for the night, and she refused. He reacted by punching the wall in her bedroom, grabbing her around the neck and punching her in the nose twice.
The affidavit states that he then dragged her out to a car and drove her to his house against her will. In the course of the incident, he also punched and damaged the windshield of her vehicle, according to the affidavit.
