Photo: Cameron Cofer
A Theodosia man, 35-year-old Cameron Cofer, has been sentenced to five years in the Missouri Department of Corrections in connection with a June stabbing incident outside a Gainesville residence along State Highway 160.
The Ozark County Times reports the stabbing victim, Justin Ledbetter, and his girlfriend, Krista Cofer, were in the Ozark County courtroom last week when Circuit Judge Craig Carter handed down the sentence. Krista Cofer and Cameron Cofer are siblings.
Cameron Cofer, represented by defense attorney Ricky Farrow, pleaded guilty to a Class B felony of assault in the first-degree pursuant through a plea agreement with the state. As part of the agreement, a felony charge of armed criminal action was dismissed.
Because the charge is considered a dangerous felony, Cofer will be required to serve at least 85 percent of the sentence before he is eligible for parole. The five-year prison sentence is the lowest prison sentence available for the Class B felony, punishable from five to 15 years in prison.
Cofer was arrested in the early morning hours of June 22 after a witness called the Ozark County Sheriffs Department to report the Theodosia man had used a kitchen knife to stab Ledbetter in the abdomen.
Ledbetter was transported to Baxter Regional Medical Center with a 1.5-inch wide puncture wound to his lower back that penetrated his abdominal cavity.
Court documents indicate an Ozark County deputy spoke with a witness who said Cofer became agitated after he had a negative encounter with a woman. He then went outside the residence and locked himself in his truck.
Ledbetter and Krista Cofer, who had been inside the home when Cofer became agitated, went out to the truck to stop him from driving, because he was reportedly intoxicated.
A verbal dispute broke out between Cameron Cofer and Ledbetter, and Cofer got out of the vehicle, went inside, grabbed a knife from the kitchens butcher block and went back outside, where the vctim was standing.
Cofer then reportedly yelled he was going to “gut” Ledbetter. Krista Cofer told officers her brother ran to Ledbetter and struck him with something.
A witness inside the house dialed 911 to report the altercation, and moments later a woman ran inside the house and yelled for someone to call an ambulance because Ledbetter had been stabbed.
Cofer was arrested and transported to the Ozark County Jail, where he was interviewed. He told deputies he had become angry with Ledbetter because of a prior incident involving Krista Cofer, Ledbetter’s fiancee.
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