Miller man bound over for trial in felony assault of wife

May 4—MOUNT VERNON, Mo. — A Miller woman testified Monday that she injured her arm April 2 when her husband dragged her down the street hanging from a car he was driving.

Kristian Baxter's testimony and that of Lawrence County Deputy Ryan Devost at a preliminary hearing in Lawrence County Circuit Court were sufficient to convince Judge Matthew Kasper that there was probable cause for Joshua D. Porter, 30, of Miller, to stand trial on a count of first-degree domestic assault.

Baxter prefaced her testimony with a claim that matters had improved with her husband since the day of the assault.

"Joshua was having a really hard time then with the drugs he was struggling with," she explained.

He has been doing better since then, prompting her to drop a protection order she had obtained against him so he could come back home, she said.

She testified that the day in question she had just been released from the hospital when they got into an argument. She was attempting to retrive her prescription drugs from their car when he took off, dragging her down the street with her arms caught inside a window.

"How far did you go?" Assistant Prosecutor Roscoe Miller asked.

"About 200 feet," she replied.

Devost testified that he found her crying on the porch of the couple's residence when he arrived.

"I was initially told by the victim that she felt, as she was being dragged by the car, that she was going to make contact with a mailbox to the north of the residence," the deputy said.

Porter, acting as his own attorney at the hearing, did not choose to cross-examine either his wife or the deputy but did make one statement under caution from the judge about his right to remain silent.

"I do want to say I saw it a little different as to what happened," Porter said.

But he did not explain what he meant by that, pending his intention to obtain legal counsel. The judge set June 14 for the defendant's initial appearance in a trial division of the court.