Mom pleads to punishing her children with BB gun
A Gainesville woman admitted in Ozark County Circuit Court last week to endangering the welfare of her two young children, bringing an end to a case involving an April 2025 incident in which she reportedly used a BB gun to punish her kids.
Amy Dunn Trout, born in 1987, pleaded guilty to two charges of first degree endangering the welfare of a child, class D felonies, during the Jan. 23 session of Ozark County Circuit Court. She was sentenced to five years probation.
She was also given a two-year SIS, or suspended imposition of sentence, which does not mean Trout will serve time in jail or prison. Instead, the sentence is “suspended.” If she follows the terms of her probation, the court will close the case and she will not have a criminal conviction on her record. However, if she does violate her probation, the judge can execute the sentence and send her to jail to serve the remainder.
She made the guilty plea as part of a plea agreement with the state. In exchange for the guilty plea, additional charges of abuse or neglect of a child, domestic assault and armed criminal action were dismissed.
Charges stem from an April 2025 incident in which Trout reportedly shot her two children with a BB gun as a form of punishment.
According to the probable cause statement, prepared by Deputy Vesa Phelan, on April 17, last year, he and Deputy Jeffrey Lane were assigned to help a Division of Family Services worker with a hotline call that had come from Gainesville Elementary School about two children who had allegedly been shot with a BB gun by their mother as a form of punishment.
During the DFS visit, the worker asked to speak with the children alone, and Trout gave permission. The worker asked the children if they knew why she was there and what her job was. She told them she was there to ensure they were safe and ensure their protection.
She asked if anything had recently happened, and a 5-year-old boy told the worker that “Mommy got mad” and shot them with the BB gun. The worker asked where they were shot, and the boy reportedly lifted his shirt and showed a bruise that “was clearly made from a BB strike.”
The 8-year-old girl then said that she and hexr brother had played with the BB gun when they were not supposed to and left it outside, which had angered their mom. She said Trout had shot the boy while he was jumping on the trampoline. The girl said when she saw the mom shoot the boy, she started to run away, but her mom shot her before she could get away. The girl also pulled up her shirt and showed the worker where she had been struck. The girl pointed out about how far away they were when they were struck, a distance of about 10 or 15 feet.
The DFS worker then asked Trout if she knew why they were there, and she said she did. She asked Trout what happened that day, and she told the worker that she found the BB gun outside and got mad because the two children had been told not to play with the gun. She said she shot at the kids, not thinking she’d ever hit them.
At that time, Deputy Lane asked to see the BB gun, and Trout retrieved it from the garage. It was a pink and black Daisy-brand lever-action BB gun.
The DFS worker then informed Trout that “in no way was this an OK form of punishment.” Phelan told her that she was being arrested for child endangerment, and she was placed into custody and put into the officers’ vehicle.
The mother was transported to the Ozark County Sheriff’s office, where she was booked, read her Miranda rights and signed a form to signify she wanted to speak with officers. Phelan asked Trout to explain what had happened, and she reportedly broke down crying immediately and kept saying “I shot my babies. I’m a terrible mother. What type of mother would do that?”