By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
A Joplin man who shot at Jasper County sheriff’s deputies who were pursuing his vehicle two years ago on 32nd Street pleaded guilty Monday to assault on a law-enforcement officer and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Bryan K. Rogers, 34, was facing five felony counts in Jasper County Circuit Court from the incident on May 1, 2006.
In an agreement with the county prosecutor’s office, Rogers pleaded guilty to the single count of assault on a law-enforcement officer. A second count of assault on a law-enforcement officer, one count of discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle and two counts of armed criminal action were dismissed.
Circuit Judge David Dally sentenced Rogers to the prison term in accordance with the plea bargain. The agreement allows the sentence to run concurrently with a federal prison term of 21 years and 10 months that the defendant is serving for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.
Officers found methamphetamine, marijuana, prescription drugs and two stolen handguns in the vehicle Rogers was driving when he started shooting at deputies two years ago. The pursuit began near McClelland Boulevard and 32nd Street, and proceeded west to Iron Gates Road before a rear tire of Rogers’ vehicle blew out or was shot out, and the vehicle crashed into a ditch.
One deputy returned Rogers’ gunfire during the chase, but no one was injured.
Rogers pleaded guilty to the federal charge on April 9, 2007, and was sentenced by a federal judge as an armed career offender because of prior violent-criminal convictions.
Separate case
In a separate case Monday in Dally’s courtroom, Brandon S. Hole, 41, of Anderson, pleaded guilty to three felony counts related to a vehicle chase by police. Police and court records state that Hole led Duquesne and Joplin officers on a chase Feb. 5 after an officer tried to stop him for driving in the wrong lane on East Seventh Street, with the rear bumper of his car dragging along the street.
A high-speed chase ensued during which Hole reportedly ran red lights and jumped multiple retaining walls before running his vehicle into a tree in Murphy Park. He then backed up, turned around and drove at four officers on foot before turning and ramming his vehicle into a patrol car.
Officers pushed his vehicle into a tree with a patrol car to get him stopped. But a struggle to get him handcuffed and taken into custody ensued, according to court records. Once he was arrested, some marijuana and methamphetamine were discovered in his car, an affidavit states.
Hole pleaded guilty Monday to assault on a law-enforcement officer, resisting arrest and possession of methamphetamine, and was sentenced by the judge to four years on each count.
In exchange for his guilty pleas, the prosecutor’s office agreed to limit the time Hole might be assessed on each count to four years, and to allow the sentences to run concurrently with all sentences he receives. Court records show he has recent convictions for felonies in Butler and McDonald counties as well as Jasper County.
Rather than send Hole to the Missouri Department of Corrections, the judge ordered that he remain in custody at the Jasper County Jail until he can be transferred to the Kansas Department of Corrections for a legal detainer that state has placed on him.
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