A 25-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday in Jasper County Circuit Court to sexually assaulting a woman three months ago at a home in Joplin and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Nathaniel A. Stevenson changed his plea to guilty on a charge of sexual assault in a plea agreement with the Jasper County prosecutor’s office.
The deal capped the prison time that Stevenson could be assessed at four years. He had been facing the possibility of up to seven years in prison for a conviction. Circuit Judge Gayle Crane accepted the plea agreement and assessed Stevenson the four-year term.
The former Webb City man was arrested Feb. 12 when an officer who was called to a central Joplin address encountered the defendant leaving as he was pulling up. Stevenson would not stop as ordered by the officer and was arrested by force.
The officer had been called to the address concerning the sexual assault of a 19-year-old woman from Newton County. The woman had gone to sleep at the address where she attended a birthday party and woke up to find Stevenson sexually assaulting her.
Crime & Courts
Man sentenced to four years in state prison
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