Puxico man gets 25 years

By NOREEN HYSLOP

Managing Editor

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- A Puxico man has been sentenced to serve 25 years in prison for stealing equipment from the Southeast CO-OP at Puxico in June 2012 and for destroying and/or causing extensive damage to much the property that was taken.

Skaggs

Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney announced Monday that Dustin Jacob Skaggs, 24, of Puxico, appeared in a Bloomfield courtroom on April 22, 2013, and plead guilty to several charges, including: two counts of Class A felony stealing -- value of property greater than $25,000, for which sentencing range is enhanced as a prior persistent felony offender, (10-30 years); four counts of Class C felony First Degree Property Damage, with sentencing range enhanced as a prior persistent felony offender, (0-7 years); Class B felony second degree burglary, with sentencing range enhanced as a prior persistent felony offender, (5-15 years); Class B felony stealing a motor vehicle, with sentencing range enhanced as a prior persistent felony offender (5-15 years);

and the Class C felony of knowingly burning or exploding, with sentencing range enhanced as a prior persistent felony offender (0-7 years).

Skaggs was arrested by Stoddard County Sheriff's deputies on June 12, 2012, following an investigation stemming from four calls regarding property damage in rural Puxico. Deputies initially responded to the calls on County Roads 234 and 248 near Puxico. According to a probable cause affidavit submitted by Sgt. Tim McCoy at that time, an investigation was launched after McCoy located a burned pick-up truck upside down in a field on County Rd. 248 while responding to the property damage reports. It was later determined the truck, along with an ATV, had been stolen from Southeast CO-OP in the city of Puxico.

McCoy's investigation led him to information that Skaggs had admitted to at least two individuals that he had stolen a truck and a four-wheeler from the CO-OP, and that he had set the truck on fire. One individual told police Skaggs had said he wrecked the pick-up truck and then burned it.

When interviewed by police, Skaggs admitted to the theft, telling officers that he and two acquaintances, Travis Hopper and his uncle, Johnny Hopper, had broken into the CO-OP. Skaggs said the two Hoppers drove the pick-up truck and he drove the four-wheeler from the business.

Skaggs stated after Travis Hopper got the truck stuck in a field, the trio decided they would burn the vehicle to eliminate any chance of police identifying them by their fingerprints.

McCoy also learned that a tractor had been stolen from a neighboring field in the same time frame last June. That tractor was located in a ditch with significant damage after having been left running while in gear throughout the night.

"It was also learned that an excavator had been stolen from (the victim's) property," McCoy's affidavit says, "and driven into a rice field, causing damage to the wheel box, which controls the water level for the rice field."

Several of the farmer's levees on the rice farm were also damaged, McCoy stated in his affidavit.

According to Oliver, there was no plea agreement offered to Skaggs, and he plead guilty as charged to all counts. Skaggs was sentenced by Judge Robert Mayer on Monday, May 20.

"After testimony was presented by the state of multiple victims, the defendant was sentenced to serve 25 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections," Oliver confirmed Monday afternoon.

Both Johnny and Travis Hopper were earlier sentenced in the case. Travis Hopper received a seven-year sentence, and was placed on probation after serving 120 days.

Johnny Hopper was sentenced to five years. He is also on probation.