Since that time, O’Neal has been arrested and charged with a number of crimes in Arkansas and Missouri. He has been confined to jails in Baxter and Marion Counties and to state prisons in Arkansas and Missouri.
According to electronic court records in Missouri, all of O’Neal’s felony charge have been lodged against him in Ozark County.
O’Neal appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court March 30 on his most recent charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, 3rd degree domestic battery and obstructing governmental operations.
O’Neal told the court that a no contact order had been issued as a result of the altercation and he requested that the court lift that order. The order prohibits
O’Neal from having any contact in any way with the victim “even if the alleged victim allows or requests contact.” Circuit Judge John Putman denied O’Neal’s request.
The matter of lifting the order was discussed again during his March 30 court appearance. A woman identified as O’Neal’s wife appeared in court with him and made the same request.
Circuit Judge Andrew Bailey questioned the woman at length as to her reason for wanting the no contact order lifted.
At one point, the woman said she would feel safe around O’Neal even in light of recent events. Judge Bailey said because of the violent nature of the charges against O’Neal, he needed to be certain the woman would not feel threatened if O’Neal was allowed to reestablish contact.
She assured the judge that she would not be concerned.
O’Neal told the court he is now living with a friend.
Judge Bailey reluctantly agreed to grant the request of the wife and lifted the order. O’Neal is to reappear on June 8.
O’Neal was booked into the Baxter County Detention Center September 30 last year about 10:30 p.m. and released at 12:55 a.m. on Oct. 1 after posting a $5,000 bond.
His arrest came after Baxter County sheriff’s deputies were called to an address along Live Oak Drive in Mountain Home to respond to a report of a fight underway inside the residence.
When the deputies arrived, they reported first seeing a male in the driveway with blood on the knuckles of his right hand and running down his arm from the area of the elbow.
The man said he had just injured himself in a fall. The deputies believed the blood had been there longer and was already showing signs of drying.
When the deputies asked the man what had happened, he said they were on private property and had no right to be there. He is reported to have added that he had not done anything wrong and “wasn’t a woman beater.”
The man told the deputies his name was “Bennet — Bennet but I ain’t in it.” He finally said his name was David Bennett.
The victim was still on the phone with authorities at the time and she said the man doing the talking and giving the false name false name was David O’Neal.
Deputies took O’Neal into custody for obstruction of governmental operations at that point. It was also determined he was on felony probation.
The victim who had left the residence returned and told deputies she had been in the living room with O’Neal when he became agitated and angry when he thought she was on the phone with another man.”
She said he started throwing and breaking items inside the house and she attempted to leave, but he followed her outside.
The victim said she had gotten into a vehicle when O’Neal approached and broke the passenger side window and removed her from the vehicle. She said he then shoved her to the ground, grabbed her by the throat and picked her up.
When deputies checked the house, they found blood on a bedroom reported to be where O’Neal slept. A .38-special pistol was located in the bed “ammunition around it.” There was ammunition also on scattered on the floor of the bedroom.
O’Neal is a felon and not allowed to possess or even be around weapons.
JURY TRIAL SET IN MARION COUNTY CASE
In addition to his closed cases in Arkansas and Missouri and the newly opened case in Baxter County, O’Neal has a 2023 Marion County case scheduled for a jury trial in late November.
In that case, O’Neal is accused of attacking a man in his home along Hard Time Circle in Bull Shoals on September 2, 2023. The victim said O’Neal and a female described as his girlfriend came to the man’s home, entered the residence and assaulted the man by punching and kicking him. He said several items of his personal property were damaged or destroyed during the fracas.
The victim took officers into his bedroom where he said the attack took place. The room was described “as being in disarray with furniture knocked over and a broken television set on the floor.”
When questioned, O’Neal initially invoked the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination. When the female began to talk to officers, O’Neal was said to have cautioned her to remain silent.
At first, the female said she was the one that attacked the victim. O’Neal is reported to have broken his silence at one point to say, “it was all me.”
He was said to have then reverted to his Fifth Amendment protections.
According to the probable cause affidavit, an investigator noticed “fresh injuries” on O’Neal’s right hand “consistent with being in a fight.”
FOUGHT WITH COPS
Through the years, O’Neal has faced a number of felony charges including commercial and residential burglary, breaking or entering, theft of property and battery against a law officer.
In one case, O’Neal was charged with fighting with and kicking law officers who were attempting to take him into custody. O’Neal was reported to have been belligerent and physically resistant to all attempts to take him into custody.
He was reported to have refused to obey commands, refused to take a cigarette out of his mouth and refused to stop resisting even when he was placed in the backseat of a patrol car.
He was alleged to have asked at one point that an officer “just shoot me dead, do me a (expletive deleted) favor, Go ahead.”
Eventually, there were three officers on scene and O’Neal was demanding to see a supervisor,
As he was being taken to jail, O’Neal “slammed his head against the prisoner partition in the patrol car causing a gash to his forehead.”
His booking photo clearly shows the bloody results of that self-inflicted injury.
When he appeared in court to accept a negotiated plea, prosecutors announced the battery against the officers was being dismissed, along with terroristic threatening and reckless driving charges against O’Neal.
He pled guilty to resisting arrest and was put on misdemeanor probation for a year. One stipulation of the negotiated plea was that O’Neal was to serve 10 days in the Baxter County Detention Center with credit for two days already served. That requirement is marked out on the plea statement and initialed by a deputy prosecuting attorney.
Prosecutors say the plea was structured as it was because there were potential issues that arose during multiple reviews of the arrest video that caused concern.
EARLIER CHARGES
In mid-November 2011, O’Neal was one of several people arrested in connection with numerous theft cases in Arkansas and Missouri. The thefts had been reported during a six-week period prior to the arrests.
The thefts had taken place at six area churches, two quick shops, a garden center, the 101 Mower Mart, a laundromat, a marina on Lake Norfork and an antique shop.
At one church in Missouri, checks, cash and a bass guitar valued at $800 were taken. A cafe owner reported that a collection box for St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis with $400 was stolen from his business.
Apparently acting alone in pulling off a series of residential burglaries, a then 21-year-old O’Neal ended up being charged with three residential burglaries in 2011.
He was accused of breaking into three houses along Fish and Game Road. The doors of the residences were reported to have been pried open and away from the door jambs. Items reportedly taken included four flat screen television sets, DVDs, a first aid kit, electronic games and a mirror in a gold frame.
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