Kansas woman pleads down to misdemeanor in Joplin child abuse case
Jun. 11—A Parsons, Kansas, woman took a plea offer this week on charges that she struck a 7-year-old boy when he got in an altercation with her son.
Renita C. Tolbert, 32, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Jasper County Circuit Court to a misdemeanor count of abuse in a plea deal with the prosecutor's office. She had been facing a felony count of child abuse in an incident that took place May 24 at an apartment complex in the 3400 block of East Newman Road.
Associate Judge Joe Hensley accepted the plea agreement and assessed the defendant 60 days in jail, with execution of the sentence suspended and the defendant placed on unsupervised probation for one year.
A probable-cause affidavit stated that Tolbert struck the child in the mouth and on his back, leaving a cut on his lip and a handprint on his back.
