Joplin man pleads down to misdemeanor in assault of wife
Jun. 11—A 50-year-old man was placed on probation with a requirement to complete anger management counseling when he pleaded guilty Thursday to a reduced charge in an assault of his wife.
Daniel B. Howerton had been facing a felony count of second-degree domestic assault from an incident Jan. 24 inside a moving vehicle on Range Line Road in Joplin. He pleaded guilty Thursday in Jasper County Circuit Court to a misdemeanor assault charge in a plea deal allowing a suspended sentence and probation.
Associate Judge Joe Hensley accepted the plea arrangement and assessed Howerton six months in jail with execution of the sentence suspended and the defendant placed on unsupervised probation for one year. He will be required to complete anger management counseling as a condition of probation.
A probable-cause affidavit filed in the case states that Howerton hit and choked his wife and slammed her head against the glass of a window in their vehicle in Webb City. She sustained bruises and cuts to her forehead, and a tooth was knocked out.
