Joplin man handed prison time in domestic assault convictions

Jun. 14—A Jasper County judge on Monday assessed a 53-year-old Joplin man four years in prison on two felony convictions for assaulting his wife.

Judge Dean Dankelson sentenced Bobby J. Miller at a sentencing hearing in Jasper County Circuit Court to concurrent terms of four years on two counts of second-degree domestic assault stemming from a domestic disturbance March 7, 2021.

Miller had pleaded guilty to the charges April 18 in a plea bargain dismissing four other counts of second-degree domestic assault pertaining to an assault of his wife Sept. 28, 2020. Miller's plea deal capped the sentences he might be assessed at no more than four years.

Miller's wife told police that he hit her on the top of her head with his fist and choked her during the 2021 incident and that he physically abused her on a daily basis, a claim that a responding officer noted was substantiated to some degree by the extent of bruising visible on her body, according to a probable-cause affidavit.

In the 2020 incident, Miller was accused of pulling his wife from the back seat into the front seat of their vehicle and choking her.

Jeff Lehr is a reporter for The Joplin Globe.

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