Reduced charge anticipated in local child kidnapping case

Jun. 1—Attorneys for both the defense and the state indicated Thursday that a reduction of a Neosho man's child kidnapping charge is anticipated once he is arraigned in a trial division of Jasper County Circuit Court.

Matthew W. Honeycutt, 23, waived a preliminary hearing Thursday on a Class A felony count of child kidnapping and was ordered by Associate Judge Joseph Hensly to stand trial.

With his client's waiving of the hearing, defense attorney Craig Lowe asked the court to consider dropping or reducing Honeycutt's bond requirements in light of the Jasper County prosecutor's office having informed Lowe that the charge will be reduced to a Class E felony count.

A Class A felony count carries a punishment range of 10 years to life. A Class E count carries up to four years.

Honeycutt was arrested on the charge April 16 as he was returning to Missouri from Oklahoma on Interstate 44 with a 7-year-old child in his company that he had picked up in Sarcoxie the previous night.

The child's mother, Amber S. Turner, had given Honeycutt, whom she only knew as "Matt," permission to take her car and the child the night of April 15 to go pick up a dog about 10 minutes away from their residence on County Road 20.

A probable-cause affidavit states that Honeycutt never picked up the dog and instead took the child across state lines into Oklahoma, disappearing with the minor for several hours without parental consent.

The Jasper County sheriff's office was informed and an Amber Alert issued, leading to a reported sighting of the vehicle the following day as it was headed back into Missouri. Joplin police stopped the car at mile marker 4 and arrested Honeycutt.

His bond initially was set at $250,000 and subsequently reduced to $25,000. With the prosecutor's office's stated intention in court Thursday, the judge agreed to lower the defendant's bond to $2,500.

The child's mother, 38, faces a felony child endangerment charge in the case.