By Jeff Lehr
news@joplinglobe.com
JOPLIN, Mo. —
A Joplin man convicted of a sex offense 10 years ago pleaded guilty Friday to molesting an 8-year-old girl in 2010 and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Daniel L. Menteer, 30, changed his plea to guilty on an amended charge of child molestation in the first degree in a plea deal with the Jasper County prosecutor’s office.
Menteer had been facing charges of first-degree statutory rape and first-degree statutory sodomy stemming from contact with the girl on Aug. 14, 2010. The statutory rape charge was amended to child molestation and the statutory sodomy charge dismissed under terms of the deal.
The deal also capped the prison time Menteer might receive at eight years and dismissed a separate count of failure to register as a sex offender. Circuit Judge David Mouton accepted the plea bargain and assessed the defendant the prescribed prison term.
A Joplin Police Department report indicates that the case came to light when the girl disclosed the abuse to her mother. Her mother then contacted police. The girl was interviewed by investigators at the Children’s Center in Joplin.
The dismissed registration charge was filed in April of this year. Court records show that Menteer was convicted of deviate sexual assault in Newton County in 2002 and was assessed a four-year prison sentence.
