Missouri prison term meted out to Kansas man on array of felonies

May 23—A Galena, Kansas, man who has faced as many as 12 felony counts in Jasper County Circuit Court in recent years pleaded guilty Monday to five of them in a deal and was sentenced to 10 years in a Missouri prison.

Seth E. Carter, 22, changed his plea to guilty on counts of first-degree robbery, vehicle tampering, unlawful possession of a firearm, stealing a motor vehicle and stealing rented property.

Carter's plea agreement dismissed two counts of stealing a motor vehicle as well as single counts of armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon, possession of a controlled substance and resisting arrest. Judge Gayle Crane accepted the plea arrangement calling for concurrent terms of 10 years on the robbery count and seven years on each of the other convictions, and assessed the defendant the agreed-upon length of terms.

The convictions stem from arrests dating back to 2020.

The robbery conviction pertains to the theft at gunpoint of an Xbox gaming console from Gregory Draper during a meeting Oct. 13 at his own mother's house that Carter had arranged through Facebook Marketplace.

Six days after that arrest, he picked up the charges of theft of a firearm, unlawful use of a weapon, possession of methamphetamine and resisting arrest following a traffic stop and foot chase in Joplin.

The vehicle tampering conviction pertains to an August 2022 theft of a motorcycle in another transaction he set up through Facebook Marketplace. The theft of a motor vehicle conviction was filed in 2021 after he took a car from an acquaintance in Webb City and failed to return it.

In April of this year, he and a girlfriend rented a mower and trailer from The Rental Store in Webb City and never returned them, according to a probable-cause affidavit.

Carter was convicted in 2019 of burglary in Cherokee County, Kansas, and is prohibited from possessing firearms. But in May 2020, he was found to be in possession of a handgun when he sought treatment at Mercy Hospital Joplin for a gunshot wound to his leg that he told police happened accidentally as he was cleaning the gun.