By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
A 27-year-old man was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for plying a 13-year-old girl with alcohol and sexually assaulting her three years ago.
Circuit Judge Gayle Crane assessed Joseph J. Pennington the prison term at a sentencing hearing in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin.
Pennington, of rural Jasper, pleaded guilty in February to a reduced charge of second-degree statutory rape in a plea agreement with the county prosecutor’s office that limited the prison sentence he might be assessed to no more than five years. The defendant initially was charged with first-degree statutory rape, which carries from 10 to 30 years, or up to life, in prison in Missouri.
A probable-cause affidavit filed by a detective with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department states that the girl became intoxicated on alcohol supplied by Pennington and passed out on a couch.
She told investigators that she regained consciousness briefly as Pennington was pulling her pants off. When she regained consciousness a second time, he was on top of her and forcing intercourse on her, the affidavit states. She told him to stop and tried to push him off, but he persisted while pulling her hair, according to the affidavit.
The detective noted that the victim suffered bite marks and bruises on her head, neck and arms in the course of the assault. Pennington, who was 25 at the time, told the detective that he had no recollection of the assault. He made the same statement more recently on a plea-agreement document.
2006 case
The rape of the girl took place July 14, 2006, in Jasper.
