Steven Mark Niziol, who has gotten into trouble both inside and outside the Baxter County Detention Center for more than a decade, was sentenced to 20 years in prison during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Tuesday.
Niziol is no stranger to the court system, having made his first appearance in 2005 when he was a teenager
The charges to which the 32-year-old Mountain Home man pled guilty were contained in the oldest of four open criminal cases. Charges in three other criminal cases, all filed this year, will be dealt with at a later date.
According to the probable cause affidavit filed in the 2018 case, Niziol was involved in the sale of 7 grams of methamphetamine to a person working with law enforcement Aug. 13 last year.
The confidential informant contacted a woman and made arrangements to purchase the drug from her for $400. The informant was directed to a location along Main Street in Mountain Home where the sale would take place. A vehicle known to be driven by the woman arrived at the designated location. The informant reported Niziol was at the wheel. Niziol and the woman both participated in selling the methamphetamine to the informant, according to the affidavit.
After the transaction, investigators reported the crystalline substance in the small plastic bag that had been handed to the informant field tested positive for methamphetamine.
The charges in the drug sale case are no where near as serious as Niziol faces in other open cases. He is accused of participating in an attack May 21 that left a Gassville man with extensive injuries. Niziol was charged with aggravated robbery, kidnapping, residential burglary, theft of property, terroristic threatening, being a felon in possession of a firearm and first-degree battery stemming from the Gassville incident. He is also accused of threatening to kill a reserve deputy with the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office.
The alleged attack on the Gassville man left the victim with contusions and abrasions about his neck, face and head, loose teeth, pain in his rib cage area and a loss of hearing in his left ear. Medical personnel on the scene recommended he go to the hospital to be checked out, but the man declined because he did not have health insurance.
The victim told police he had been working in his backyard when he went into his residence to take a short break. It was then he said two men jumped him. He also told investigators he saw a female he knew exit his bedroom carrying his .22-caliber rifle and ammunition for the gun. The victim said none of the people had permission to be on his property.
The victim told police he did not know the two male attackers. They were later identified as Niziol and 19-year-old Jonathan Smith Jr. The female involved in the incident was reported to be 33-year-old Jessica Wuest.
The suspects are alleged to have made the victim empty his pockets, taking his wallet and personal valuables. They were reported to have been discussing a debt the victim allegedly owed.
At one point, the victim told investigators, he was put into a shed on the property, and while one of the males stood guard, the other male and the female hooked up a trailer belonging to the victim to the vehicle the suspects had driven to his house. The victim told police items of his property were loaded onto the trailer.
Before the suspects left the man’s house, they allegedly warned him if he told anyone about what had happened, they would return and kill him with his own .22-caliber rifle.
The victim said he believed the three people entered his home through the back door while he was involved in his yard work.
Niziol was arrested by a Mountain Home Police officer after a traffic stop June 16. He also picked up drug charges as the result of the stop, when he was found to have a small plastic bag of methamphetamine on his person. Smith was picked up and jailed a few days later. Wuest is still being sought.
The threat to kill the reserve deputy came Aug. 1. Niziol was reported to have become “irate and disruptive” after appearing on a video hookup between the jail and court complex. According to the probable cause affidavit, Niziol allegedly became upset when he did not get his way with the terms of a plea agreement offered by the state.
The reserve deputy was assisting with the video court appearances. The deputy incurred Niziol’s wrath when he told Niziol, who had left his assigned location to talk to female inmates, to get back where he belonged. When Niziol refused to comply, the reserve deputy said he placed his hands on Niziol with enough force to get him back to where he should be.
Niziol is alleged to have yelled, “I will kill you. You won’t put your hands on a grown man like me anymore.” Jail staff said Niziol continued to yell death threats under the cell door after he was locked down.
According to incident reports, Niziol has been involved in a number of fights with other inmates in the county jail through the years.
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