On Thursday, September 15, 2016, Circuit Court Judge Laura Johnson sentenced PHILIP W. RASMUSSEN, d/o/b 4-09-1960, of Branson, to fifteen (15) years in prison for the crime of assault in the second degree. Rasmussen had been found guilty by a Taney County jury on Tuesday, July 12, 2016, for punching a man in the throat – fracturing the man’s trachea. Taney County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Thomas Kondro tried the case for the State of Missouri.

The maximum penalty for the class C felony of assault in the second degree is normally seven (7) years in prison and a $5,000.00 fine. However, Rasmussen was charged by the Taney County Prosecutor’s Office as a prior and persistent felony offender, enhancing the maximum possible sentence to fifteen (15) years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. Rasmussen was on parole in Arkansas for battery at the time he committed the assault in Taney County. Rasmussen’s criminal history also includes a Kentucky conviction for first-degree manslaughter.