A Mountain Home man recently pled guilty to charges stemming from a violent domestic altercation involving a firearm and was sentenced to six years in prison in Baxter County Circuit Court.
Thirty-one-year-old Justin Watkins was accused of being a felon in possession of a firearm, aggravated assault, terroristic threatening and seven counts of endangering the welfare of a minor.
The Baxter County sentence will run concurrent with a nine year prison sentence Watkins received in early January in Jackson County when his probation was revoked in that county.
The situation leading to Watkins’ Baxter County arrest began when a Mountain Home policeman responded to the report of a domestic altercation involving a firearm on June 27 last year. The officer reported a man and woman were involved in the disturbance and that he was able to hear loud screaming coming from the home located along Winbrook.
Watkins and a 31-year-old female were found in a bedroom engaged in an argument.
According to the probable cause affidavit, there were seven children in the house at the time. Some of the youngsters reported Watkins had verbally threatened the woman and struck her as well. Watkins is also said to have loaded a firearm and pointed it at the victim.
Electronic court records show Watkins to be a convicted felon and not allowed to be around weapons.
Some of the children belonged to Watkins, some to the female victim and one was a child they had in common.
Police said the seven children “came piling out of the backdoor of the residence.” The presence of the children resulted in Watkins being charged with the seven count of endangering the welfare of a minor.
Court records show Watkins has also dealt with criminal charges in Cross and Jackson Counties in the eastern part of the state.
In the Cross County case, Watkins was charged with possession of drugs and paraphernalia to ingest the drug in 2020. He faced commercial burglary and theft by receiving charges in Jackson County in 2017.
When he began to pick up new charges, a petition to revoke his probation was filed in the Jackson County case in July. The petition alleged Watkins had used methamphetamine and marijuana while on probation and that he had been charged with the domestic altercation in Baxter County in late June last year.
He was found guilty of violating his probation and sentenced to 84 months in prison.
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