Resisting arrest, assault by DWI, federal drug/gun charges: More notable court cases reported in the Times in 2016

<em>Continued from <a href="http://www.ozarkcountytimes.com/news/article_ae8c0742-d351-11e6-886b-5bd..." target="_blank">this article</a> last week</em>
The Ozark County Times reported these notable court cases with connections to Ozark County residents during 2016. All those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty. (This list is continued from last week’s Times.)
<strong>Assault/resisting arrest cases</strong>
<strong>Anthony L. Martin,</strong> 30, of West Plains pleaded guilty to resisting arrest and possession of a controlled substance in Ozark County before Circuit Judge Craig Carter and was sentenced to a long-term drug treatment program in the Missouri Department of Corrections. A five-year prison sentence was also ordered, and the execution of that sentence was suspended. Martin also pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a  firearm, and he was ordered to enter and successfully complete the Heartland long-term drug treatment program. A probation violation hearing was held May 5. Martin’s probation was revoked in that case, and he was ordered to serve the five-year prison sentence. The case stemmed from a March 4, 2016, incident in which Martin reportedly stole a vehicle and held a woman at gunpoint while he drove her around West Plains in the stolen vehicle and then fled to Ozark County after releasing her from the car. Officers found Martin at the Bulldog Apartments in Gainesville and had to forcibly remove him from the vehicle after he refused to exit, court documents say. Inside the vehicle, officers reportedly found methamphetamine rocks, marijuana, a syringe and Clonazepam pills, a controlled narcotic.
<strong>Carson Travis Spillman,</strong> 42, of Isabella pleaded guilty to an amended misdemeanor charge of third-degree assault in Douglas County Court before Associate Judge Elizabeth Bock in August in connection with a 2015 incident when Spillman reportedly held a 12-year-old child in a “head hold.” He was sentenced to six months in the Ozark County Jail. The execution of that sentence was suspended, and he was placed on supervised probation. He was also ordered to successfully complete parenting and anger-management classes. Spillman was originally charged with abuse of a child in Ozark County. The case was moved to Douglas County on a change of venue motion filed in March. The case came to light in December 2015 when Spillman’s stepson told school officials he had been assaulted and choked. Spillman reportedly told officers he was trying to restrain the child at the mother’s request and demonstrated to officers a physical move that Deputy Winston Collins described as a “choke hold” in the probable cause statement in the case.
<strong>Estevon Dockins,</strong> 29, was ordered to complete a 120-day institutional treatment program in the Missouri Department of Corrections after pleading guilty before Circuit Judge Craig Carter Nov. 30 to second-degree domestic assault and possession of methamphetamine. The original probable cause statement included allegations that Dockins physically assaulted and chained a woman in a cellar during a dispute early this year. However, defense attorney Joe Allen said Dockins adamantly denies that he chained up the woman. Methamphetamine and other drug-related items were reportedly found by officers on the property. Charges of kidnapping, armed criminal action, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia were originally filed but were dropped at the plea hearing. The sentencing included two seven-year prison terms, to be served concurrently under the Missouri Revised Statute 559.115, meaning Dockins will be released on probation if he successfully completes the 120-day treatment program.
<strong>Assault cases by driving while intoxicated</strong>
<strong>Misty (Pendergrass) Gant,</strong> 37, of Gainesville, is charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting a lawful stop, driving while intoxicated, charged as a persistent offender, operating a vehicle without a license, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. The case is in connection with the Feb. 23, 2016, incident in which Gant is alleged to have dragged Ozark County Deputy Tiffany Neill down a highway with her car in an attempt to flee the officer then led deputies on a high- speed chase of over 100 miles per hour on Z and Y Highways with a flat tire and finally stopped the car and fled on foot into a nearby wooded area. Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Adam Johnson transported Gant to the sheriff’s office due to suspected intoxication after she was apprehended. While she was in the patrol vehicle, Gant reportedly said, “I knew who she was,” referring to Neill. After reading Gant her Miranda rights, Johnson questioned her regarding the incident. Johnson wrote that he could smell intoxicants on Gant’s breath when she spoke. He said Gant’s eyes looked bloodshot and glassy, and she reportedly had difficulty comprehending basic questions and would sit in silence or ask the officer to repeat the question. When Johnson asked if Gant had had anything alcoholic to drink, she reportedly said she would like to speak to her attorney. Earlier, Gant reportedly had consented to Trooper Amy Johnson searching her purse and allegedly told the officer, “There is under 35 grams of marijuana in my purse.” A green leafy substance and rolling papers were retrieved from the purse and placed into evidence. An opened box of Budweiser beer was located in the vehicle, the statement says. Gant is being charged as a persistent offender of driving while intoxicated in connection to a driving while intoxicated conviction in Greene County on Sept. 5, 2007, and driving while intoxicated in Howell County on Feb. 26, 2011.
<strong>Albert L. Stanford</strong>, 30, is charged with a felony charge of second-degree assault by operating a vehicle while drunk, resulting in injury. A warrant was issued in the case with a $4,000 cash-only bond Sept. 15; however, online records indicate he has not been arrested. The incident is in connection with allegations listed in a probable cause statement filed by Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper N. J. Britt that indicates Stanford was traveling northbound in a 1999 Ford Ranger on Highway P, about 5 miles south of Theodosia, when he lost control of his vehicle, crossed into the opposite lane and hit an oncoming vehicle driven by 58-year-old Theodosia resident Mark Vincent Layette nearly directly head-on. Stanford was driving at such an excessive speed that the impact caused the entire engine of his vehicle to be knocked loose, and his vehicle traveled almost 100 feet uphill from the area of impact, the statement says. Stanford appeared to be intoxicated at the scene of the accident, the report says, and a breathalyzer test indicated that Stanford’s blood alcohol content level was well over the legal limit. A radio check by Britt revealed that Stanford’s driving privileges were suspended in Missouri. Stanford was transported to the Ozark County Sherriff’s Department, where he submitted to a chemical test of his breath that revealed a blood alcohol content of .128 percent. In Missouri, it is illegal to operate a vehicle with a  blood alcohol content of .08 percent or higher.
<strong>Cases of theft and burglary</strong>
<strong>William Huelsenbeck,</strong> 31, was arrested in February 2016 and charged with first-degree robbery, stealing a motor vehicle and property damage to a motor vehicle with intent to steal in connection with an alleged car break-in and theft in Theodosia Jan. 26. The case is still open, and a capias warrant was issued May 23, 2016, after a non-compliance report was filed in the case by Court Probationary Services. The case came to light when Brandy Shepherd told police she noticed a tall, slim man outside her front window with a purse around his neck. She later noticed several items missing from her home, including the ashes of her deceased husband. She reportedly ran after Huelsenbeck, who ran into a neighbor’s home. The neighbor reportedly said the man was not inside. When Shepherd threatened to call the police, Huelsenbeck ran out of the home “looking agitated” with a handgun and told the woman he would shoot her if she didn’t leave, the report says. The defendant reportedly shouted that he was “a Tecumseh boy” and he’d recently been released from the Missouri Department of Corrections.
<strong>Jami Lynn Vance,</strong> 33, of Hartshorn, and <strong>David DuJardin,</strong> 32, of Houston, are each charged with burglary and felony theft/stealing of property in connection burglary of the Sweeton Pond Church in Dora and the theft of several items at the church and the nearby cemetery. The pair are also charged with burglary and felony stealing in Texas County. Vance and DuJardin both pleaded guilty there to burglary in that case on Sept. 6 and were given five-year suspended sentences, placed on probation and ordered to pay restitution and all court costs. They were arraigned Nov. 11 on the Ozark County charges before Circuit Judge Craig Carter. DuJardin is set for a jury trial July 18. Vance is scheduled for a plea hearing or trial setting Feb. 8. Ozark County Deputy Curtis Dobbs wrote in his report that entry was made through a back window of the church. Missing items included a CD player, electronic sound mixture, a rechargeable Ryobi “sawmill,” hanging wall tapestry, dehumidifier and an aluminum cattle gate from the nearby cemetery. On July 7, Texas County deputies contacted the Ozark County Sheriff’s Office after an officer there found a sound mixer recovered from the DuJardin and Vance residence in Hartsthorn. The machinery was similar to the equipment reportedly taken from the Sweeton Pond Church. According to documents in the Texas County case, other items recovered in the burglaries there included a 100-pound propane tank, a windmill tower, a cast iron stove, lawn chairs, a fire pit, gas from a 9N tractor and 10 fruit trees.
<strong>Fern Leonard</strong>, 64, and <strong>Cheryl Duvall,</strong> 59, were each found guilty of forging and stealing membership deeds to Cloud 9 Ranch during a joint Wright County jury trial April 20-21, 2016, nearly six years after the incident in question. The defendants waived jury sentencing on the two class C felony charges, which can carry a sentence of up to seven years in prison. Duvall was given 15 days shock treatment in the Ozark County Jail, a one-year suspended sentence and ordered to pay restitution. Leonard was placed on house arrest for 30 days, ordered to complete 60 hours of community service, and pay restitution and court costs. The case was moved to Wright County on a change of venue motion filed Jan. 27, 2015. It came to light in 2011 after Cloud 9 Ranch officials noticed and reported suspicious activity after Coy Jackson, then the general manager of the 6,500-acre Caulfield resort, saw a Cloud 9 Ranch membership deed advertised in the West Plains publication The Horse Trader with Leonard’s phone number listed. The two women, former Cloud 9 Ranch employees, were arrested by Ozark County deputies in April 2013. Multiple Cloud 9 Ranch members reportedly sold back a ranch membership deed, and the women kept the sales off the Cloud 9 Ranch record books and instead sold the deeds themselves.
<strong>Federal drug and gun ring</strong>
<strong>Ralph Tallman,</strong> 64, of Thornfield served a term in federal prison for his part in a marijuana trafficking operation involving more than a dozen individuals and hundreds of pounds of marijuana. Tallman accepted a plea bargain in a federal case before U.S. District Judge Kristine G. Baker in which he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana and was sentenced to 34 months imprisonment with three-year supervised release. He was also required to participate in a residential substance abuse treatment and educational and vocational programs during incarceration. Tallman was originally charged by local authorities with manufacturing and producing a controlled substance when a search warrant was executed Jan. 22, 2014, at his residence on D Highway in Thornfield. The search reportedly turned up 223 marijuana plants, marijuana hash balls and a plastic bag with marijuana and firearms. Tallman and 11 others were charged in the federal case that surrounded Tyler Lamastus, the alleged ring leader of a marijuana and gun distribution ring in Bee Branch, Arkansas, an unincorporated community about 30 miles north of Conway. The case against Lamastus was originally unveiled after federal agents discovered 283 pounds of marijuana and a dozen fully automatic assault rifles during a December 2010 raid of Lamastus’ Bee Branch compound, according a news outlet in the area. Soon after the raid, the Associated Press reported that the marijuana found at the compound was worth more than $900,000, and the weaponry included 14 AR-15 rifles converted to automatic weapons, a machine gun, a weapon with a silencer, a sawed-off shotgun and a Sten automatic rifle. The indictment in the federal case against Lamastus alleges that several of the individuals charged, including Tallman, grew multi-pound quantities of marijuana for the trafficking operation operating out of the compound. A spokesperson at the Ozark County Prosecutor’s Office said because the matter was taken up in federal court, Tallman’s local case, in which he was originally charged with manufacturing and delivering a controlled substance in Ozark County, will be “nolle prosequi,” a latin term meaning the local case will not be prosecuted.
<strong>Bulldozing down and setting fire to a home</strong>
<strong>Johnathan Latham,</strong> 45, is set for a June 20 jury trial in Ozark County on charges of arson and property damage after allegedly bulldozing down a house and setting fire to a John Deere tractor. According to the probable cause statement, Ozark County Deputy Curtis Dobbs was contacted at 8 p.m. Friday, April 8, by Judy Latham, who told the deputy she had received a phone call from someone who told her that John Latham had demolished a manufactured home on County Road 308A with a bulldozer and that a John Deere tractor had been burned and pushed into a pile with the demolished home’s debris. She showed the deputy a cell phone photo and explained that the property is part of the estate of the late Jerry W. Latham. She also provided court documentation stating that she was appointed as the estate representative of a list of assets, including the home and tractor that had been destroyed. On April 9, 2016, deputies were dispatched to the property regarding a domestic dispute, and while the deputies were on the scene they identified manufactured-home parts and part of a tractor that had been pushed into a low area and appeared to have been burned. When the officers asked John Latham about the debris, he reportedly told the officers he had called in a controlled burn for the property. Online documents show that the address of the destroyed property on County Road 308A is the same as Latham’s residential address. Latham had a previous property-damage-by-bulldozer incident in a case where he pleaded guilty to first-degree property damage July 8, 2015. In that case he reportedly drove a bulldozer down County Road 308 while drunk, significantly damaging the roadway, hitting a tree then a telephone pole, causing a power outage in the area. Latham was given a four-year suspended execution of sentence and was placed on supervised probation for five years. He was also ordered to pay restitution of $3,000 to Ozark County and $555.64 to White River Valley Electric Company to cover the damages to the county road and electric pole.

2016 Notable cases