Joshua Jones
A Smithton man is in custody after reportedly taking a woman’s picture and attempting to use it to solicit her murder.
The Pettis County Sheriff’s Office arrested Joshua E. Jones, 35, on a felony charge of first-degree stalking. He remains at the Pettis County Jail on a $15,000 bond, cash or surety.
This is one of three separate incidents occurring on the same day for which he collected multiple felony charges.
An investigation into Jones began July 3 when a man brought a printed copy of a concerning Facebook post to the Sheriff’s Office, according to a probable cause statement for the case.
Jones had posted a picture of a woman walking next to a silver Jeep with the caption, “$2821.83 for anyone to lay this b– on my doorstep. Even if I gotta pay u myself!”
He referred to the death of a man named Morgan Hull Yeager as the reason to solicit the unknown woman’s murder.
The man who reported the Facebook post said he didn’t know the woman’s name but gave the location of her residence. He said he was concerned for her safety.
Deputy Mike DeHaven, who took the report, went to the area and found the house the complainant described. He knocked on the door and spoke with a woman who appeared to be wearing the same clothing as the person in the picture.
The woman said she was in her backyard that morning, July 3, when she heard a vehicle stop nearby. She turned around and saw a man hanging out of a blue pickup truck with a cellphone in his hand, appearing to take her picture, according to court documents.
The suspect said, “You’ll pay for what happened to Morgan!” before driving away, according to the probable cause statement. This caused the woman to feel immediate fear for her safety.
She told DeHaven she didn’t recall ever meeting the man before and didn’t know the name Morgan Hull Yeager. DeHaven then read her Jones’ Facebook post, which she said sounded like a threat.
“I asked her why someone would make a Facebook post making a threat with her picture attached,” DeHaven said in the statement. “She stated that she had no idea.”
The woman agreed to assist with prosecution and later came to the Sheriff’s Office to make a written statement.
DeHaven reported he met with Pettis County Sheriff Kevin Bond, who suggested he contact the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control to pursue a case of conspiracy to commit homicide.
A MSHP DDCC trooper used a fake Facebook account to try to set up a situation in which Jones could follow through with soliciting the woman’s assassination, according to the probable cause statement. He was unsuccessful, though, in developing a conspiracy case against Jones.
DeHaven later went to Jones’ residence in Smithton on an unrelated assault case and took him into custody. The deputy had responded to Smithton the same day to take a complaint from a female jogger, who said Jones had tried to strike her with his truck.
The jogger identified Jones in a written statement, in which she said she was jogging east on West Washington Road from Rattlesnake Hill Road when she saw Jones turn onto the westbound side of the street.
Jones made an offensive gesture toward her and then leaned his head out the window and yelled an obscenity, according to court documents. He then reportedly accelerated and steered the truck toward her.
The woman said she was afraid of being seriously injured or killed when the truck swerved at her from the opposite lane of traffic, according to a probable cause statement. She quickly got off the roadway and was injured as a result, reporting right ankle and calf pain.
Jones has been charged with felony first-degree assault in connection with this incident and received a $50,000 bond, cash or surety. He has been arraigned in Pettis County Circuit Court and has his next hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. July 24.
Jones’ arraignment also applied to another charge of felony first-degree stalking. DeHaven received a third complaint about Jones on July 3, this time regarding a violation of a protection order.
An ex-girlfriend of Jones’ came to the Sheriff’s Office lobby to report he had been tagging her in Facebook posts that day. Some of the posts from Jones directly referenced her while a few referred to her indirectly, according to a probable cause statement.
She said she believed some of the posts were about her when he made seemingly threatening remarks against her and a family member.
One of the posts said, “Better pray. (sic) I go to prison for stalking the residence where my child is supposed to live. I WAS STALKING THOSE PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY R THE PROBLEM.”
Jones has a pending charge of felony first-degree stalking from November. He was convicted in March of first-degree harassment and has prior convictions of misdemeanor third-degree domestic assault, driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest, among others.
The Pettis County Circuit Court has granted three protection orders against Jones, one in 2011 and two in 2017, for adult abuse and stalking.
He is facing an added charge of first-degree stalking, stemming from the report of the protection order violation. He received a bond of $1,500. The stalking charge resulting from the reported murder solicitation was filed Tuesday.
DeHaven said in court documents he gave Jones several opportunities to make a statement on each of the three cases, but he declined. Regarding all three charges he garnered, Jones only said, “28 years and (Pettis County Judge Jeff) Mittelhauser keeps doing this.”
