On Thursday, December 19th, 2013, in the Taney County Circuit Court, Gerald L. Lister (DOB: 12-10-1960) of Daconao, Colorado, pleaded guilty to one count of receiving stolen property, and was sentenced by Judge Mark Orr to three (3) years in prison. The plea was made pursuant to a plea agreement with the Taney County Prosecutor’s Office.
The case stemmed from Lister’s arrest for an outstanding warrant on October 31, 2013, while he was at the Taney County Judicial Center to watch his wife – who was in the Taney County jail – appear in court. Lister was wanted on a warrant out of Colorado for an escape charge. Intelligence conducted in advance of October 31st alerted authorities that Lister planned to appear at his wife’s court appearance on that date, wearing a military uniform, and that he was a fugitive. Lister is not a member of the United States Armed Forces.
Once Lister was arrested on the warrant, Taney County Deputy Bobby Smith noticed the vehicle Lister arrived to the Judicial Center in and called in the license plates to dispatch. When Smith was informed the plates were reported stolen out of Kansas, he notified the Forsyth Police Department. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Lister was in possession of the car key for the 2001 Ford Escape with the stolen Kansas tags, and that the automobile had also been reported as stolen from the State of Kansas.
“This is yet another great example of multiple law enforcement agencies in our county working together to capture a fugitive, while also recovering a victim’s stolen property,” says Taney County Prosecutor Jeff Merrell. “It would have been easy to just pat each other on the back after arresting the fugitive, but, instead, officers went on to investigate how Mr. Lister had arrived at the Judicial Center that day. Due to that additional effort, some victim is able to recover his or her property without further delay.”
Receiving stolen property for property valued at over $500 is a class C felony, which carries a maximum penalty of up to seven (7) years imprisonment in the Missouri Department of Corrections and/or a fine of up to five thousand dollars ($5,000).