PINEVILLE, Mo. — A Pea Ridge woman - Stephanie J. Weston, 36 - appeared in a preliminary hearing Wednesday, Jan. 6, immediately following a Hindsville, Ark., man being sentenced to eight years in a Missouri prison Jan. 6 after he pleaded guilty to one count of stealing and one count of animal abuse in McDonald County Circuit Court.
Ricky K. Obenshain, 35, was originally charged with 11 counts of stealing and four counts of animal abuse.
Obenshain told Judge JohnLePage that he and two other people stole 11 cows during the early morning hours of Sept. 8, 2009, resulting in injuries to several of the animalsduring the theft and subsequent attempt to take the cows to a sale barn in Joplin.
“We got out and stole some cattle,” Obenshain told Judge LePage when asked what he did. “We were hauling them to the sale barn and they got injured and several had to be destroyed.”
In testimony at a preliminary hearing for Weston, a secondsuspect in the case, held immediately following Obenshain’s plea, Anderson veterinarian Clay Adair said when the cattle were broughtby the Missouri State Highway Patrol to the Anderson Animal Hospital, one of the cows was dead and three others were injured. Adair said one of the cow’s hind legs fell through the trailer and drug on the highway. He said the injured cattle were laying down and unable to get up.
After failed attempts to get the cows to stand, he said theprognosis was grave and the cattle were “humanely euthanized.” Adair said the cattle were down because “they were exhausted anddehydrated.” He also said there were 11 cattle packed in a trailer that should have had no more than eight in it at a time. He said the remaining cattle were okay after taken out of the confined trailer and given water. He said the cows looked as though they weighed about 900 pounds each.
Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Bruce Klier testified that he had a call to be on the lookout for a trailer dragging the legs of a cow. He said he spotted the trailer traveling north on U.S. Highway 71 near Goodman and pulled it over when it exited on Route B. Klier said he saw the legs out the bottom of the trailer and could “smell something burning.” He said there was also a blood trail following the trailer.
Klier said when talking to the suspects, inconsistencies in their stories regarding ownership of the cattle led to further investigation that determinedthe cows were not owned by any of the three people charged in the case.
The final suspect charged in the case is Holder P. Crow, 45, of Garfield. Crow was bound over for trial in September 2009 after he waived a preliminary hearing. No trial date has been scheduled as yet.
Under cross examination by Weston’s attorney Duane Cooper, Klier said Weston told officials she was not with Crow and Obenshain during the cattle theft, but joined them when they had a flat tire near Powell, Mo., while on they way to the sale barn.
But Obenshain testified that Weston was with Crow when he joined them the evening of Sept.
7 and they headed north of Pea Ridge. He said somewhere after they left Pea Ridge, they came to a farm where he got out of Crow’s vehicle to get the cows up and Crow and Weston returned with a trailer. Obenshain did confirm they had a flat near Powell and also had another tire that needed air shortly after leaving Powell.
When asked if Weston was present when the cattle were put in the trailer, Obenshain said, “Stephanie helped load the cattle.
We all loaded the cattle.”
Cooper’s cross centered on where the cows were taken.
“Were you saying it was in Arkansas where you got the cows?” Cooper asked.
“I don’t know,” Obenshain replied.
Following Obenshain’s testimony, the state rested, but Cooper told LePage the state had not proven ownership or jurisdiction in order for Weston to be bound over for trial. The state asked for a continuance in order to produce the owner of the cattle.
Cooper agreed to the motion and LePage ordered the hearing continued until 1 p.m. Jan. 20.
News, Pages 1 on 01/20/2010