By Jeff Lehr
Globe Staff Writer
JOPLIN, Mo. —
James M. Holland took his girlfriend to Jerry Ritz’s home three months ago expecting a dinner-and-a-movie kind of night.
The outing was going fine until Bradley White showed up at Ritz’s rural home on Highway 66 in the company of another guy. Both of them appeared to be drunk, Holland told the judge at White’s preliminary hearing Wednesday in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin.
White, 46, of Webb City, seemed intent on riling Holland, accusing him of “snitching” on his own brother among other things, Holland told the court.
“I got up to leave,” Holland testified. “I wasn’t going to sit there and be accused of things I never done.”
He said that as he started to go, White took a swing. It was the last thing he remembers about the night, he said.
“The next thing I know, I’m waking up in the hospital,” he said.
White is charged with first-degree assault in the alleged Jan. 23 pummeling of Holland that knocked the victim unconscious, broke nearly every bone in his face and required that he undergo extensive reconstructive surgery, according to Holland’s testimony.
Associate Circuit Judge Richard Copeland found probable cause at the conclusion of the hearing for White to stand trial and set May 14 for his initial appearance in a trial division.
Holland acknowledged that he doesn’t even remember being hit a single time, just that first punch coming at him. But his friend Ritz backed up his account at the hearing and told the court what he recalls taking place after Holland was knocked down. He said White got on top of Holland and kept hitting him in the face, with Holland’s head bouncing off the concrete floor of his home with each punch.
Public defender Nicki Neil asked Ritz what he did while Holland was being beaten. He said Holland’s girlfriend was upset by the assault, and he went outside to try to calm her down.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Ritz said. “He (White) was too big for me to stop.”
He said Holland regained consciousness a short time later, and got up and drove off in his truck, although the victim said on the witness stand that he has no memory of doing that.
Affidavit
A probable-cause affidavit signed by a Jasper County sheriff’s deputy states that James Holland was kicked in the face by Bradley White while already knocked out, and that an unidentified man in White’s company also punched Holland. But there was no testimony at White’s preliminary hearing Wednesday regarding a kick in the face or a punch from a second man.
