The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Joplin Metro

Discussion

November 7, 2008

Guilty pleas entered in two robbery cases

By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

A Joplin teenager who robbed a pizza delivery man at gunpoint and a Webb City man who shoved a security employee to the ground as he fled a Wal-Mart store with shoplifted video games changed their pleas to guilty Friday in Jasper County Circuit Court.

Jonathan A. Irizarry, 16, 2012 S. Wall Ave., pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery of a Papa John’s pizza delivery man, Matthew Stratton, 29, on Aug. 6 in the 2800 block of South Pearl Avenue in a plea agreement with the Jasper County prosecutor’s office.

The plea agreement would limit the prison time Irizarry may be required to serve to no more than 10 years and allows for the possibility of sentencing under Missouri’s dual-jurisdiction program for juveniles who commit felony offenses and are certified to stand trial as adults.

Circuit Judge David Mouton received the plea agreement and ordered the completion of a sentencing-assessment report by the local probation and parole office. The report will help determine whether Irizarry will be sent to the dual-jurisdiction program at Montgomery City or to an adult prison, or given a suspended sentence and placed on probation.

A police incident report of the robbery stated that Stratton believed two males ordered him to the ground, and stole his wallet containing cash and checks and some pizza that he was delivering. Stratton told police he saw just one male, who appeared to have a handgun, but he thought he heard a second male voice as well.

In an unrelated Joplin robbery case, George J. Brown, 51, of Webb City, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of felony stealing in a plea agreement capping the prison time he might be required to serve at no more than four years.

Brown had been facing a charge of second-degree robbery for taking about 30 video games from the Wal-Mart store at 1501 S. Range Line Road on April 10, 2007, and shoving a female security employee who tried to stop him as he ran to a waiting vehicle.

Mouton accepted Brown’s plea change and ordered completion of a sentencing-assessment report on him as well.







Sentencing date

Judge David Mouton designated Jan. 23 as the sentencing date for both men.

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