By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
A 27-year-old man received a suspended sentence Monday in Jasper County Circuit Court on an arson conviction for setting his home near Carthage on fire for insurance gain.
Robert E. Baker pleaded guilty in August to second-degree arson in a plea agreement with the Jasper County prosecutor’s office that capped any prison time he might be assessed at no more than five years.
Circuit Judge David Dally assessed Baker five years at his sentencing hearing Monday, but suspended execution of the sentence and placed him on probation for five years. Court records show that Baker still faces a felony charge in Newton County of tampering with a witness in the case.
An arson charge that Baker’s live-in girlfriend, Stephanie A. Eckenroth, 22, was facing was dismissed by the judge on Monday at the request of the Jasper County prosecutor’s office.
Investigators with the state fire marshal’s office and the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department alleged in court documents and at a preliminary hearing in November of last year that the couple conspired with Baker’s father to burn down their house at 2084 W. Mound St.
A fire on May 25, 2007, caused extensive damage to the home, and the couple received more than $50,000 from Allstate Insurance, according to testimony at that hearing.
Arson was not suspected until an informant, about seven months after the fire, told the Carthage Fire Department that the blaze was deliberately set.
Baker was charged in April of last year with threatening a potential witness in the case. He allegedly followed the woman’s vehicle down Range Line Road in Joplin and made threatening gestures at her.
The Globe was unable to determine Monday whether restitution has been made to the insurance company. Court records viewed by the newspaper do not reflect any restitution order by the judge at Monday’s hearing.
