The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Local News

November 12, 2008

<img src=" http://www.joplinglobeonline.com/images/zope/courts.gif " border=0> Carthage man waives hearing on sex charge

A 28-year-old Carthage man waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin on a charge of having sexual intercourse with a girl younger than 17.

Associate Circuit Judge Richard Copeland ordered Humberto Garza bound over for trial on a charge of second-degree statutory rape. The judge set Nov. 24 as the date for Garza’s first appearance in a trial division of the court.

Court records state that Garza is accused of going to the rural Carl Junction home of a girl younger than 17 about midnight July 2 and having sexual intercourse with her. A probable-cause affidavit states that the girl let him in through her bedroom window.

The girl later told her mother, and the mother contacted law enforcement.

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