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.