On Monday, November 17, 2014, in the Circuit Court of Christian County, Senior Judge William Roberts found RONALD L. STODDARD, d/o/b 6-10-1960, of Rockaway Beach, Missouri, guilty of two (2) counts of the class B felony of distribution of a controlled substance. Judge Roberts presided over a bench trial that began Monday morning and lasted into the early afternoon, during which Assistant Taney County Prosecutor Thomas Kondro represented the State of Missouri. The case had been transferred to Christian County on a change of venue motion.

The Taney County Prosecutor’s Office charged that on March 6, 2013, and March 13, 2013, Stoddard gave Xanax pills to an confidential informant and a narcotics investigator with the C.O.M.E.T. drug task force. Testimony was presented that these crimes were committed during a time when Stoddard was working as a bail bondsman in Taney County, and that one of the illegal transactions occurred in the parking lot of the Taney County Judicial Center.

Each count of the class B felony of distribution of a controlled substance carries a range of punishment from five (5) to fifteen (15) years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. Senior Judge Roberts set Stoddard’s sentencing for January 20, 2015.