Passenger in car that hit Cape joggers pleads guilty to tampering with an auto

An Arkansas man says he helped steal the car that was driven into a group of Cape Girardeau joggers. But that's it.

Marcus E. Jones, 27, of Cotton Plant, has pleaded guilty to one of the two charges against him -- second degree tampering with a motor vehicle, technically for the theft of the car.

But Jones, appearing before Judge Gary Kamp, pleaded not guilty to resisting arrest arrest charges and denied having anything to do with what his co-defendant, Vincent T. Anderson has been charged with. Kamp set a bench trial on the resisting arrest charge for Nov. 21.

Anderson does face the more serious charges as the driver, including first-degree assault, tampering with a motor vehicle, leaving the scene of an accident and others. Anderson has a counsel status hearing scheduled for November.

On smartphone videos found in their possession, Jones and Anderson allegedly likened the experience of targeting joggers as akin to playing a popular video game in which criminals cause death and destruction amid big-city traffic.