Photo: Jerry Studdard An Ozark County Circuit Court jury has found a Wasola resident guilty of two counts of statutory sodomy of a child in the first degree.
Ozark County deputies, using GPS tracking, were able to pursue a serial car thief in a reported stolen truck before it crashed, breaking a utility pole and coming to rest with its wheels in the air. The driver of the truck, 32-year-old Joseph Dwayne Hale of Cabool, was taken into custody, but not before he crawled out a window of the wrecked vehicle and fled.
The Ozark County Times reports Hale was arrested earlier this month on charges of tampering with a motor vehicle, property damage to a vehicle with the intent to steal it, first-degree property damage, resisting arrest, causing a substantial risk of injury or death to others, two counts of operating a motor vehicle in a careless and imprudent manner involving an accident, failing to stop at an intersection and abandoning a vehicle or trailer. The charges are in connection with the Dec. 18 incident, with bond set at $15,000, cash-only.