Taxi driver recovering after harrowing ride

By Jeff Lehr

Globe Staff Writer

On the job for just three months, Joplin cabdriver Gilbert McHone already has a few stories. But none beats what happened to him after he picked up a confused and obviously drunken fare at the Pub Bar on South Main Street.

McHone, 33, was attacked Tuesday night by a man who hijacked his taxi and then fatally smashed it into a tree. Fortunately for McHone, he and his fare had parted company by then.

"I was shaky last night," McHone said in an interview Wednesday. "But I feel a little better today. He was the worst (passenger) I ever had."

Joplin police and the Missouri State Highway Patrol were left to ponder the actions of McHone's passenger, Ricky Joe Dennington, 40, who was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident at 8:10 p.m. on North Main Street Road at Bland Avenue.

Police Cmdr. Jim Hounschell said investigators do not have a clue why Dennington did what he did.

Dennington, convicted July 1 of driving while intoxicated as a prior offender, had missed a probation-violation hearing Tuesday in the Associate Division of Jasper County Circuit Court. Officers speculated that he may have assumed a warrant had been issued for him.

Unable to get a coherent address out of him, McHone was driving Dennington to the Joplin Police Department on Third Street when he was attacked.

Hounschell said that if Dennington thought an arrest warrant had already been issued, and if he realized McHone was taking him to the Police Department, that might be an explanation.

"But, who knows?" Hounschell said.

Actually, the warrant had not been issued.

McHone said Dennington was quite intoxicated and "speaking gibberish" when he picked up him and another male passenger at the bar shortly after 7 p.m.

Dennington climbed in the front seat, and the other passenger got in the back, McHone said. The other man wanted to be taken to the Wal-Mart store on West Seventh Street and then back to the Pub Bar.

Dennington at first gave McHone an address that he said "sounded like 1616 E. Sixth St.," an address that McHone did not realize until later does not exist.

He drove the other passenger to Wal-Mart and waited outside with Dennington. Dennington was squirming around in the front seat while they waited, putting his feet up on the dashboard at one point before eventually falling asleep in the parked cab.

McHone drove the other passenger back to the bar and then set off to take Dennington to his address. When McHone realized he did not have a good address for Dennington, he was told by radio to meet another driver for A-Dependable Taxi at 16th Street and Virginia Avenue.

When they met up with the other driver, McHone asked Dennington where he needed to go. This time, Dennington said South Pennsylvania Avenue. McHone headed for that address with the other driver following.

But when they got to 20th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, Dennington started arguing with McHone, saying they were at 23rd Street and not where he'd wanted to go.

McHone had stopped his cab, and the other driver interceded in the argument, telling Dennington that he was giving him a first warning and that he needed to provide a clear address.

He reportedly told them 2031 S. Pennsylvania Ave., which is the address court documents list from his earlier DWI conviction. But when McHone arrived there, Dennington started arguing again that they were not where he needed to go.

The other driver warned Dennington a second time and said that if he had to warn him again, he would be taken to the police station. Dennington continued to argue, and McHone said the other driver told him: "That's it. You're going to the Police Department."

McHone set off to take Dennington to the police station, swinging over to Main Street from Pennsylvania Avenue on 20th Street. Dennington had grown quiet by then.

"He was still conscious but not doing any talking," McHone said. "He kept looking at me, though, and I didn't really like that. But he didn't say anything for a while."

When they got to Third and Main streets, just a couple of blocks from the police station, Dennington broke the silence, although McHone couldn't understand the word.

"And then he just snapped," McHone said.

Dennington punched him on the right side of the face, hit him twice on the chin and grabbed him by the neck. McHone put the vehicle in park and got his seat belt off while trying to push Dennington away.

"Then I managed to get out of the car," he said. "But he got out, too, and started running at me. But when I started running back at him, he got in the car, closed the door and took off."

Another motorist who saw what happened gave McHone a ride to the Police Department. He was later taken to Freeman Hospital West to have his injuries checked out and was released.

From the point of the hijacking, Dennington apparently drove north on Main Street, almost sideswiping another car in the 1200 block of North Main Street and nearly running head-on into a Metro Emergency Transport System ambulance at the Veterans Way intersection.

At Bland Avenue, just south of Stone's Corner in Airport Drive Village, the taxi reportedly left the road at high speed, shearing off the bottom of a utility pole and smashing directly into a large tree.

Dennington's body was taken to Parker Mortuary, where funeral arrangements were pending Wednesday. A mortuary employee said the staff had not been able to locate relatives.

McHone said he has driven a number of intoxicated people in the short time he has worked as a taxi driver, and most of the time everything ends up fine.

Before Tuesday, he said, his worst drunken fare was a guy who later called to complain that McHone had eaten his sandwich. McHone said he believes the guy had eaten it himself.