Guilty plea entered in assault of Jasper police officer
Sep. 30—A Columbia woman pleaded guilty Monday to a reduced charge in an assault last year of a Jasper police officer.
Raven C. Gomez, 28, pleaded guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court to third-degree assault in a plea agreement with the county prosecutor's office. Judge Dean Dankelson ordered the completion of a sentencing assessment of the defendant prior to a sentencing hearing he set for Dec. 12.
Third-degree assault is a Class D felony punishable by up to seven years in prison. Gomez had been facing a count of first-degree assault of a special victim, which carries a sentencing range of 10 to 30 years, in the Oct. 16 punching and vehicular assault of police Sgt. Amber Ashby.
Ashby was responding to a report of a man and woman fighting in a vehicle outside Pete's convenience store in Jasper when she made contact with Gomez and Brandon L. David, 45, also of Columbia. Ashby was searching Gomez when the defendant turned and punched her, knocking her to the ground.
Ashby's head struck the pavement, temporarily disorienting her as David purportedly jumped out of the vehicle and punched her several more times. David then ran to her patrol car in an apparent attempt to steal it but gave up on it moments later and the couple fled in their car, running over Ashby's foot in the process.
The officer suffered facial bruising and a sprained ankle and was forced to take some time off work.
Gomez and David were located later in Kansas and arrested. He had been on probation there for a vehicle tampering conviction, and she was charged initially with attempted murder after allegedly assaulting another inmate while in jail in Kansas awaiting extradition back to Missouri, according to the Allen County Sheriff's Office. Gomez had indicated to a deputy that she intended to kill the other inmate, according to the sheriff's office.
David has yet to have a preliminary hearing in Jasper County Circuit Court on the first-degree assault charge he faces in the case. His next hearing is set for Oct. 9.
