Photo: Jill Neal
The initial plea agreement for a Gassville woman charged with selling the property of a person while he was locked in prison was rejected by Circuit Judge John Putman as too lenient during a court session Thursday.
The judge accepted the plea on the second try and 52-year-old Jill Neal was sentenced to six years probation and ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution.
Neal was charged with felony theft, after the property owner returned from prison and reported most of his belongings had allegedly been removed from his residence and a storage shed. The man, identified as Douglas Dwayne Munden, told investigators Neal had moved into his house before he was sent to prison and was supposed to vacate the residence when he went to serve his time.
Photo: Douglas Dwayne Munden
Munden told investigators Neal had taken items from the property, including a log splitter, and offered it to the public at a yard sale. After Munden was released from prison, he made contact with a person said to know Neal’s whereabouts and found the man wearing one of his shirts. The man said Neal had left a ladder, air pump and other items at his residence and was the one who had allegedly given him the shirts.
Munden was sentenced to 24 months in prison in November 2016, after a long-simmering dispute with other family members over a shared water well boiled over, resulting in Munden assaulting a Baxter County deputy sheriff, who went to the scene on a domestic assault call.
During the fracas, a bystander called 911 reporting the deputy needed assistance. The call brought additional officers from the sheriff’s office, Gassville Police Department and Arkansas State Police to the residence.
A stun gun and pepper spray were used on Munden to bring him under control and get him into custody.
Munden faced a number of felony and misdemeanor charges, including resisting arrest, second-degree battery and four counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Munden had been accused of a felony in 2000 and was not allowed to be in contact with weapons.
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