A Jasper County judge assessed a woman 10 years in prison Monday for stabbing and robbing a man a year ago at a Joplin motel while sentencing one of her accomplices to five years.
Amanda K. Selby, 24, pleaded guilty in June to a reduced charge in the case involving the robbing of Jose Lopez-Sandoval, 55, on Sept. 9, 2011, in a room of the Plaza Motel at 2612 E. Seventh St.
At Selby’s sentencing hearing Monday in Jasper County Circuit Court, Lopez-Sandoval showed Circuit Judge Gayle Crane the scars from the cuts he received during the robbery. Selby cut him on the face and neck with a pocketknife in the course of robbing him of a cellphone and cash while her alleged accomplices, Wayne A. Tidd, 23, and Kyle Bruin, 24, waited outside in the motel parking lot.
Selby’s plea deal with the Jasper County prosecutor’s office limited the prison time she could be assessed for the conviction of second-degree robbery to the 10 years the judge assessed her. A second count of armed criminal action was dismissed as part of the deal.
Tidd pleaded guilty to a reduced count of second-degree robbery at a separate hearing Monday before Crane and was sentenced to five years in prison. A count of armed criminal action was dismissed as part of a deal with the prosecutor capping his prison time at half that of Selby’s. He waived his right to a sentencing-assessment report as part of his plea deal.
Bruin pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery in July in a plea agreement that also would dismiss a second count of armed criminal action and would limit the prison time he might receive to seven years. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 21.
Joplin police say all three defendants planned the robbery at an apartment on Roosevelt Avenue and took a cab to the motel to commit the crime. Bruin provided Selby with the pocketknife she took with her when she went to the door of Lopez-Sandoval’s room alone and asked to use his shower.
When Lopez-Sandoval let her in, she sent a text message to Tidd, waiting in the parking lot with Bruin, that said she was going to stab the victim, according to a probable-cause affidavit. The two accomplices told police that they heard Lopez-Sandoval start yelling moments later and ran to the room, where they encountered the victim in the doorway, bloodied and clutching his chest.
The three then fled the motel with his cellphone and money pulled from his pockets. The men later told police that Selby got rid of the knife in the woods along some railroad tracks.
Local News
Two sentenced to prison for roles in motel stabbing and robbery
- Local News
-
-
Families, friends invited to honor veterans with flags this weekend
Small lengths of plastic pipe have been installed behind the headstones of veterans graves in Joplin cemeteries so that every veteran will have a flag on Memorial Day.
-
Events, activities planned to honor veterans Monday
No ceremonies are planned at Joplin cemeteries this year or at Mount Hope Cemetery in Webb City, but a number of other events are scheduled in cities around the region.
-
Oklahoma gets far more than its share of disasters
Many states get hit frequently with tornadoes and other natural catastrophes, but Oklahoma is Disaster Central.
-
Sheriff’s funds to pay for two building projects
Jasper County’s general fund budget may pay some initial costs for renovating and constructing two county buildings, but the final bill for the projects will come from law enforcement sales tax funds.
-
Joplin Board of Education to decide fate of East Middle School teacher
After hearing nearly 10 hours of testimony from more than a dozen witnesses and accepting more than 45 exhibits into evidence, members of the Joplin Board of Education voted to move behind closed doors Thursday night to decide whether Randy Turner, a communication arts teacher at East Middle School, will continue to teach.
-
Memorial Day travelers bemoan high gas prices
Norm Hayward and his wife, Claudia, have a couple of things going for them as they continue their increasingly expensive motor home trip around parts of the United States. For starters, the Phoenix, Ariz., couple are saving on hotel costs.
-
Cunningham Park vandalism estimated at $4,000
Vandals caused an estimated $4,000 worth of damage in Cunningham Park, draining the pool in the aquatic center of about 200,000 gallons of water and throwing some large landscaping rocks into the reflecting pond.
-
No charges to be filed in Joplin shooting case
The nonfatal shooting of a 25-year-old man at a Joplin residence on May 13 has been deemed justified by authorities. Jacob B. Boykin, 21, of Joplin, shot Justin S. Johnson, 25, of Carterville, once in the chest with a small-caliber handgun at 5260 E. Sunny Acres Lane.
-
Joplin team drove through storm to get to Moore
It was a long drive in the middle of a severe thunderstorm that had earlier produced a massive tornado in Moore, Okla. With the two-year anniversary of Joplin’s deadly twister approaching on Wednesday, a team of 14 Joplin emergency workers was ready to risk the trip in order to get help to a hurting Moore.
-
Mike Pound: DVD smells like pizza; how great is that?
Just when I think the rest of the world is passing us by, this great country does something that renews my faith in innovation. It does something that renews my faith in that can-do spirit that led Charles Lindbergh to fly nonstop across the Atlantic, thus leading to the invention of the airplane bathroom.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Families, friends invited to honor veterans with flags this weekend
