Stoddard County couple sentenced to prison for burglary by deception

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- An area couple who misrepresented themselves to gain access into people's homes pleaded guilty in Stoddard County Wednesday and received a prison sentence for the crimes.

The Daily American Republic newspaper reported Tonya Lynn (McCollough) Simpson, 34, of Bloomfield and John L. Simpson III, 34, of Dexter pleaded guilty as charged to one Class B felony of first-degree burglary before Presiding Circuit Judge Stephen Sharp, according to Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney Briney Welborn.

The Simpsons, who entered their pleas during what was supposed to be a review of their cases before Sharp, waived having sentencing assessment reports completed by Probation and Parole.

After accepting their pleas, Sharp sentenced the Simpsons to seven years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, said Welborn, who recommended the seven-year sentence as part of the plea negotiations.

In exchange for the Simpsons' pleas, Welborn said, he dismissed another Class B felony of first-degree burglary and two Class B felonies of financial exploitation of the elderly.

The burglary charges stemmed from the Simpsons being allowed into a home under "false pretenses; that's also burglary," explained Welborn, who described having the Simpsons plea to a burglary as important.

"People need to think that if they weasel their way into a house to take someone's money, it's just the same as if they broke the door down" to gain access, Welborn said.

Unlawful entry is the basis for a burglary charge, and in this instance, "they unlawfully entered by the false pretenses," Welborn said.

John Simpson also pleaded guilty to an unrelated Class C felony of stealing, which was before Sharp on a change of venue from Butler County.

He was accused of stealing Fentanyl patches from James Deffendall, who lives in the 1100 block of Mulberry Street, on April 17.

John Simpson's plea "was not expected by me; I went over there to set the case for trial," explained Butler County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Bill Gresham.

"He pled guilty for seven years in the Missouri Department of Corrections," Gresham said.

Sharp, he said, ordered the sentence to run concurrently with the seven-year Stoddard County sentence.

Tonya Simpson also is charged with stealing Deffendall's Fentanyl patches, as well as an additional Class C felony of stealing. That charge stems from Tonya Simpson allegedly stealing Vicodin pills from Glena Funk on June 2, 2009.

Gresham said Tonya Simpson's cases are still pending in Butler County. No preliminary hearing date, he said, has been set.

In addition to their new charges, John and Tonya Simpson each were on probation through Stoddard County on the Class D felony of non-support and the Class C felony of stealing and appeared before Sharp for revocation hearings on those charges.

Sharp revoked John Simpson's probation and sentenced him to four years in prison on the non-support case and seven years on the stealing case, according to Stoddard County Circuit Clerk Sherry Disney.

Tonya Simpson, Disney said, also had her probation revoked and was sentenced to seven years in prison on the non-support charge, as well as seven years on her stealing charge.

Disney said Sharp ordered all of the Simpsons' sentences to run concurrently with their new charges.