Local man reportedly assaulted woman, held her against her will


Sprague

Gainesville resident Timothy K. Sprague, 30, is currently being held in the Ozark County Jail on a $15,000 cash-only bond, in connection with a Dec. 23, 2019, incident in which he is alleged to have held a woman against her will, threatened her and punched her in the face. 

When officers responded to the residence that Monday, Sprague reportedly had a .45-caliber pistol with two magazines, an SKS rifle with an attached magazine and two baggies of methamphetamine. 

He was arraigned Dec. 24, before Associate Judge Raymond Gross. A bond-reduction hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 14. 

According to the probable cause statement filed in the case, Ozark County Sheriff Darrin Reed, Deputy Cpl. Curtis Dobbs and Chief Deputy Winston Collins, along with Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper John Roberts, responded to the Sprague household on Highway 181 in Gainesville after the sheriff’s office received a tip that Sprague was holding a woman against her will at the home. 

A concerned individual reportedly showed the officers text messages he’d received from a woman who said she was being held at the house and was afraid. The woman also reportedly texted the individual that she’d already been hit in the face and threats were made to break her cellphone. 

The officers knocked on the home’s front door, and “a person who lives at the residence,” who is unnamed in court documents, answered and gave the officers consent to search the home. The individual reportedly told officers that Sprague occupied the basement of the home. 

Officers found Sprague in a downstairs bedroom and a woman in a nearby bathroom. The woman appeared to be in good health, the report says, but she asked the officers to help her leave the house.

Two .45-caliber magazines with bullets in them were lying in plain view, Dobbs wrote in his report. A family member had told the officers that Sprague possessed a .45-caliber pistol but the gun had been taken away from him and hidden due to his “erratic behavior.”

Sprague later surrendered the pistol to officers and admitted the gun belonged to him. 

An SKS rifle with an attached magazine was found in a common area, and two bags containing a crystal substance, which field-tested positive for methamphetamine, was found in a TV center in the basement. 

Sprague was convicted of two counts of endangering the welfare of a child on Nov. 6, 2013. Because he is a convicted felon, it is illegal for him to possess any firearm.

Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423