By Jeff Lehr
Globe Staff Writer
JOPLIN, Mo. —
A former Texan was assessed two three-year prison terms Monday for failing to register in Jasper County as a sex offender and for receiving stolen property.
Clay E. Herring, 53, pleaded guilty Feb. 22 to the charges in Jasper County Circuit Court.
The plea was part of an agreement with the county prosecutor’s office that limited the prison time he might be assessed on each conviction to no more than three years and dismissed a third count of felony theft.
Circuit Judge Gayle Crane accepted the plea bargain at Herring’s sentencing hearing Monday and assessed the defendant the two prison terms. The judge ordered that the sentences run concurrently.
Herring was charged in July 2009 with failing to register as a sex offender with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department.
He was convicted in 1983 in Dallas County, Texas, of sexual assault on a child younger than 14 and was required to register as a sex offender in that state, according to court records. Herring registered at the Jasper County sheriff’s office in April of last year and listed 3524 N. Central City Road as his address. But authorities learned in July that he had not been residing there since May 2009.
In the other case, an investigation by Carthage police in August of last year alleged that Herring charged an elderly Carthage woman $7,000 to perform a number of home improvements that three other contractors consulted by police estimated should have cost about $2,000.
A probable-cause affidavit states that the work was performed and the payments were made to Herring while the victim’s caretaker was not present. Another affidavit states that some ladders, saws and other tools and equipment disappeared from the woman’s home and the caretaker’s vehicle in late May, and that Herring was known to have pawned one of the saws at a pawnshop in Joplin.
