A Licking man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after shooting a woman several times with an air pistol in June.
Texas County Prosecuting Attorney Parke Stevens Jr. said Rickey Green, 34, of Licking, pleaded guilty July 21 to armed criminal action and two counts of first-degree assault for his actions in an incident at his residence on June 12. Circuit Judge William Hickle presided over the proceedings and sentenced him to one 15-year sentence and two 5-year sentences in the Missouri Department of Corrections system.
Hickle also revoked Green’s probation for felony child support and sentenced him to four more years.
Stevens said the shooting incident occurred when Green was moving from a woman’s house and unexpectedly pulled a CO2-powered pellet pistol from his belongings and shot her in the head multiple times at point blank range. Stevens said Green then pulled a knife on a man at the scene who had knocked the gun from Green’s hands. The woman will need surgery to remove the pellets from her skull, Stevens said.
After an investigation by the Texas County Sheriff’s Department, a probable cause statement and evidence was submitted to Stevens and a Texas County grand jury indicted Green, who was arrested and held without bond until the guilty plea.
“Assaults are serious offenses, especially ones that cause severe injuries,” Stevens said. “The victim is lucky it was only a pellet pistol and not a real gun, otherwise this case would likely have been much worse. These crimes require the defendant to serve a mandatory 85-percent of a sentence, so Mr. Green will be in prison for a long time.”