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Man who endangered corrections officer gets 4 years

Frezzell pleads guilty to one charge of endangerment

By TERESA RESSEL
Daily Journal Staff Writer

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

FARMINGTON — A year ago, Perry Frezzell was sentenced to 21 years in prison for throwing feces and urine at Corrections officers.

This May, the Missouri Court of Appeals reversed his three convictions for endangering the welfare of Department of Corrections employees and ordered the case remanded for a new trial.

On Friday, Frezzell took a plea agreement worked out by the prosecuting attorney’s office and his public defender, and was sentenced by Circuit Court Judge Sandy Martinez to four years in prison.

He pleaded guilty to just one endangering charge and this time around, he was not charged as a prior and persistent offender.

At the trial in April of 2007, a corrections officer testified Frezzell threw feces at him on Nov. 9, 2005. Two officers testified he threw urine at them in separate incidents on Dec. 6, 2005. The urine hit one of the officers but missed the other, instead striking a food cart he was pushing.

Frezzell took the stand and told jurors he did not throw feces or urine on Corrections officers. He said he threw a bag of food out of his cell one time.

James Crump, an investigator for the prison in Bonne Terre, testified Frezzell had 12 conduct violations for throwing either feces or urine or both at Corrections employees. The violations were reported between March 1998 and May 2000 while he was incarcerated in Potosi.

A new trial was ordered because the Court of Appeals ruled Judge Martinez erred at trial by allowing testimony from Crump about Frezzell’s 12 conduction violations while in prison.

Frezzell had originally been charged as a prior and persistent offender because he was found guilty of second-degree statutory sodomy in Cole County in 1996, and of committing violence against a Department of Corrections employee in St. Francois County in 2001. He was also found guilty in 1998 of possession of a prohibited article in prison in Callaway County, and two counts of robbery and misdemeanor simple assault in the 1990s in Pennsylvania.

In other cases that day, Judge Martinez sentenced two other inmates to time in prison.

Darren Grayer, 37, of ERDCC, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for possessing a prohibited article. The sentence will run concurrent to the one he is serving. According to court records, he possessed a lock in a sock on May 8, 2007.

Carl Ashford, 45, of ERDCC, was sentenced to eight years in prison for committing violence against a Corrections employee. The sentence will run concurrent to the sentence he is serving. According to court records, he pulled an employee’s arm through the food port door.

In other cases, Kristine McGlasson, 25, of Hillsboro, was sentenced to five years in prison for violating the probation she received for possession of cocaine.

Timothy Davis, 26, of Park Hills, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for violating the probation he received for sale of a controlled substance.

Jeremiah E. Gabel, 30, of St. Peters, was sentenced to two years in prison for violating the probation he received for failure to pay child support.

Gregory B. Wilson, 31, of Cadet, was sentenced to four years in prison for violating the probation he received for failure to pay child support.

Frances E. Martin Johnson, 40, of Potosi, was sentenced to seven years in prison for stealing. The sentence will run concurrent to the sentence she received in Georgia.

Placed on five years of supervised probation was Kenneth Harness, 44, of Valles Mines, for production of marijuana.

Jack Hooten II, 30, of Park Hills, pleaded guilty to abuse of a child. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 1. According to court records, Hooten beat a one-year-old child with a belt on Dec. 14, 2007.

Kevin McDonald, 20, of Belgrade, was sentenced by Circuit Court Judge Kenneth W. Pratte to four years in prison for failure to return rental or leased property. The sentence will run concurrent to those he is already serving.

Teresa Ressel is a reporter for the Daily Journal and can be reached at 573-431-2010, ext. 179 or at tressel@dailyjournalonline.com.

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