Joplin man takes pleads guilty to drug charges in plea deal

Jeff Lehr, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·1 min read

Mar. 17—A 34-year-old Joplin man accepted a plea offer this week on an array of felony charges — primarily drug and gun charges — that he picked up over the past three years.

Tristan L. Forkner pleaded guilty Monday in Jasper County Circuit Court to counts of delivery of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance in two 2018 cases and a count of resisting arrest from a 2019 case.

In exchange for his guilty pleas, the prosecutor's office agreed to dismiss several other charges filed on him in 2019, including vehicle tampering, delivery of a controlled substance, unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm and driving while intoxicated.

Judge David Mouton delayed formal acceptance or rejection of the plea bargain and ordered a sentencing assessment of the defendant. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for May 24.

The conviction for delivery of a controlled substance pertains to a traffic stop conducted by Joplin police on Aug. 3, 2018, during which Forkner was found to be in possession of three bags of meth weighing 11.5 grams and $1,045 in cash.

Less than five months earlier, the defendant had been arrested by Ozarks Drug Enforcement Team members when he pulled into the driveway of a residence on State Line Road where they were serving a search warrant. He had three bags of methamphetamine, each weighing more than 2 grams, on him on that occasion, according to a probable-cause affidavit.

The resisting arrest count stems from an incident in November 2019 when he refused to stop when pulled over and led police on a 17-minute vehicle pursuit into Kansas and back into Joplin and ending with an arrest on a driving while intoxicated charge.

Recommended Stories

  • Teen pleads not guilty in fatal fire

    A teenager was charged Monday in a fatal fire in Lowell.

  • Government sets out £1bn plan to cut industrial carbon emissions

    The government wants firms to waste less energy and develop low-carbon technologies.

  • Two charged for pepper-spraying police officer who died after assault on U.S. Capitol

    The U.S. Justice Department on Monday charged two men with pepper-spraying three Capitol Police officers, one of whom later died, during the Jan. 6 assault on Congress by Donald Trump supporters trying to overturn his election defeat. Julian Elie Khater and George Pierre Tanios are facing multiple counts, including assaulting police with a deadly weapon, after investigators said they sprayed at least three officers with an unidentified, but powerful, chemical agent. One of those officers, Brian Sicknick, was later rushed to a hospital and died the next day.

  • Video shows moment two killed in huge fireworks explosion in California

    Witnesses say the explosion was so powerful it felt like an earthquake

  • Ghislaine Maxwell's brother says she is 'patsy' being used by US government as scapegoat after Epstein's suicide

    Ghislaine Maxwell's brother says she is a patsy for Jeffrey Epstein and that she is being used by the US government as a scapegoat. Ian Maxwell made the comments during an appearance on Good Morning America and in an interview with the Times of London. "She's a patsy for Jeffrey Epstein who they lost on their watch and they are taking it out on my sister and dammit, that's wrong," he said.

  • Belgian bishop lashes out at Vatican over gay unions decree

    A Belgian bishop has lashed out at the Vatican over its decree that the Catholic Church won’t bless same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin.” Antwerp Bishop Johan Bonny wrote in an opinion piece Wednesday that he feels “shame for my Church” and “intellectual and moral incomprehension” after Pope Francis approved the “negative” response to a question about whether Catholic clergy have the authority to bless same-sex unions. The official response said God “does not and cannot bless sin."

  • Biden vows Russia's Putin will 'pay a price' for election meddling -ABC News

    President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin will face consequences for directing efforts to swing the 2020 U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump, and that they would come soon. "He will pay a price," Biden told ABC News in an interview that aired on Wednesday. Asked what the consequences would come, he said, "You'll see shortly."

  • Exclusive: Venezuelan ministers were informed of deal 'Citgo Six' were jailed for, documents show

    Six executives of U.S. refiner Citgo have been jailed in Caracas on graft charges since 2017, but court documents seen by Reuters show that top Venezuelan officials were made aware of the deal that the country's top prosecutor accused the six executives of signing in secret. The documents, which have not previously been reported, show that during at least two board meetings of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, which owns the U.S. refiner, top Venezuelan officials - including three ministers - were informed of the proposed deal for Citgo to borrow up to $4 billion. The financing was never executed, and a Caracas court in late 2020 sentenced the six executives to between eight and 13 years in prison.

  • Biden to mark St. Patrick's Day, praise Good Friday accord

    President Joe Biden is marking St. Patrick’s Day as he recommits the U.S. to the Good Friday Agreement, which has come under increasing stress following the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union. Biden, the latest president of Irish decent, is set for a virtual meeting Wednesday with Ireland's prime minister, Taoiseach Micheál Martin. The president is expected to attend Mass near his family home in Wilmington, Delaware, before returning to the White House to partake in St. Patrick's Day celebrations toned down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

  • US sanctions 24 Hong Kong and Chinese officials ahead of a high-level meeting with Chinese diplomats

    The US sanctioned the officials over Beijing's ongoing crackdown on Hong Kong's democratic processes.

  • Sharon Osbourne refused to acknowledge Meghan Markle is Black in a resurfaced clip

    In 2018, Osbourne said the Duchess of Sussex ‘doesn’t look Black’

  • New Zealand offers cash to keep America's Cup racing at home

    Just minutes after Team New Zealand won the America's Cup sailing series on the water Wednesday, the government was offering up cash to keep the team together and the racing at home for the next match. “We want to see it all over again in 2023," said Stuart Nash, the minister responsible for the America’s Cup. Indeed, the government took the unusual step of offering money to Team New Zealand before it had even asked.

  • Team NZ accepts first challenge for next America's Cup

    Team New Zealand no sooner had retained the America’s Cup in the 36th Cup Match than it accepted the first challenge for the 37th Cup. Team New Zealand sails for the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron which has formally accepted the new challenge. While the RNZYS didn’t reveal Wednesday who the challenger is, local reports have suggested it will be the Royal Yacht Squadron of Britain.

  • Trump urges his supporters to get inoculated with the 'great' and 'safe' COVID-19 vaccines

    Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday night publicly urged Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19. He acknowledged in a 20-minute call-in interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo that Republicans are especially hesitant to get vaccinated. "I would recommend it," Trump told Bartiromo. "And I would recommend it to a lot of people that don't want to get it, and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly. But again, we have our freedoms and we have to live by that and I agree with that also. But it is a great vaccine. It is a safe vaccine and it is something that works." Other than a brief aside in his CPAC speech in February, Trump has avoided publicly discussing vaccinations since he left office. He and former first lady Melania Trump got vaccinated in January, before leaving the White House, but they didn't make that public until earlier this month. Their inoculations were so secret, "some of Trump's top aides in the White House were unaware Trump got the vaccine and reporters were often told it was unlikely Trump would be inoculated because he had antibodies from contracting the virus in October," Politico reports. Given the resistance to COVID-19 vaccines among Trump voters, Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Fox News Sunday it would be very helpful if Trump urged his followers to get vaccinated. On Monday, President Biden expressed skepticism of the efficacy of a Trump PSA. "I discussed it with my team, and they say the thing that has more impact than anything Trump would say to the MAGA folks is what the local doctor, what the local preachers, what the local people in the community say," Biden said. That actually matches the findings of a focus group barraged with various pro-vaccine messaging on Saturday. You can watch Brian Castrucci, president of the De Beaumont Foundation, which sponsored the focus group, explain what worked in the Associated Press report below. More stories from theweek.comChess grandmasters can't stop laughing after opening their tournament match with the worst possible movesCuomo vs. Inslee: A COVID-19 tale of two governorsTenet was robbed

  • Analysis: Biden team's China focus puts South Korea on the spot ahead of talks

    For the first time in years there are liberal presidents in South Korea and the United States, but the change in U.S. administrations hasn't made it any easier for Seoul to balance its alliance with Washington and its economic reliance on China. China has dominated the agenda of an Asia tour by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who arrive in South Korea on Wednesday for talks, casting its shadow even over core issues like the North Korea nuclear threat and strengthening the alliance.

  • Merkel's party slides in poll as anger grows over virus management

    Support for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives has hit its lowest level in a year, a poll released on Wednesday showed, as frustration over her government's management of the coronavirus crisis grows. Facing a federal election in September without Merkel, who is standing aside after four terms, the Christian Democrats (CDU) and Bavarian CSU sister party dropped 4 percentage points in a week to 29%, the Forsa poll showed. That is the lowest level since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in Germany in March 2020 and follows historic defeats in two regional votes on Sunday.

  • Rams working on deal to trade veteran defensive tackle Michael Brockers to Lions

    The Rams are working to finalize a deal to trade veteran defensive tackle Michael Brockers to the Detroit Lions.

  • Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse asks AG Merrick Garland to probe 2018 FBI background check into Brett Kavanaugh, suggests it was 'fake'

    Whitehouse called for "congressional oversight to understand how, why, and at whose behest and with whose knowledge or connivance, this was done."

  • Cuomo aides sent out an open letter that attacked accuser Lindsey Boylan after she came forward with assault allegations: NYT report

    Although never published, the letter tried to link Boylan to Trump supporters and released personal complaints made against her.

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene demands Guam National Guard be sent home after ‘ambushing’ her office with cookies

    ‘American servicemen are being forced to defend Fort Pelosi’