James Dabney of Gainesville, charged with attempting to steal a horse by tying it to his pickup truck and making a run for the Missouri border with the animal following behind as best it could, entered a not guilty plea to the charges during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
The 59-year-old Dabney faces felony theft of property and misdemeanor cruelty to animals charges, and his bond is set at $2,500. He was ordered to reappear in circuit court June 28th.
According to court records, the horse’s owner reported Dabney entered her property along County Road 16 in the Midway area in early February, tied a horse to the back of his truck and headed north along a rough, rocky road pulling the animal.
Witnesses reported the horse had to run to keep up with the vehicle at times. The owner and her family gave chase and caught up with Dabney before he crossed into Missouri.
Dabney was said to have told the owner he had purchased the horse, but the owner disagrees. She said he had come to look at another horse about six months before the recent event, but no deal had been struck and no money exchanged.
When Dabney was told the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office had been called, the accused horse thief fled toward the Missouri state line. The owner said her family had been able to untie the horse from the pickup truck before the would-be thief took off. They had to walk the animal back to her property, which was about a five-mile trip. She told investigators the horse did not have shoes and was limping by the time the animal was returned.
The horse was reported to belong to Melissa Goodman. Goodman faces charges of her own in circuit court related to the alleged stabbing of her long-time live-in boyfriend March 21st.
In that incident, Goodman told investigators an argument had broken out between Goodman and her boyfriend and the knifing resulted. The boyfriend told officers Goodman had pulled the knife from her pocket, began to wave it around and had eventually stabbed him in the leg.
Goodman is currently serving time in the Arkansas state prison system for a parole violation. She is being housed in the McPherson Unit at Newport.
She is due back in circuit court on her own charge June 28th.
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