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A 20-year-old man pleaded guilty Friday to a reduced charge in a Joplin felony assault case and was assessed a suspended sentence and probation.
Christopher J. Hill pleaded guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court to a misdemeanor count of assault in a plea deal with the prosecutor’s office. He had been facing a felony count of second-degree assault in connection to an attack on Shannon Morey on April 5, 2010, near 17th Street and Roosevelt Avenue.
Circuit Judge David Mouton accepted the plea bargain and assessed Hill one year in jail, with execution of the sentence suspended and the defendant placed on probation for a year. The judge also ordered Hill to pay $1,384.05 in restitution.
Police and court records state that Morey was driving along Roosevelt Avenue with his 5-year-old son in his truck when he came upon two males on skateboards who stood in the middle of the street and refused to get out of his way. He yelled at them to “get the hell out of the road,” according to a probable-cause affidavit, but they refused and one of them slapped the hood of his truck.
When Morey got out of his truck to confront them and check his vehicle for damage, he wound up getting hit in the face with a skateboard and being struck on the head with an unknown object.
With the help of a witness, Hill was identified as one of the assailants and arrested by police. The second assailant was never identified.
