A 21-year-old Fort Smith man with a history of domestic violence against family members is headed to the Arkansas Department of Corrections after a conviction this week in Sebastian County after a plea deal on Felony Domestic Battering in the First Degree stemming from an arrest in May that violated his parole.
Joseph Jones Jr. , a resident of North 44th Street in Fort Smith, was handed five years imposed with an additional 15-years suspended on a plea deal that saw revocation charges dismissed and habitual offender sentencing waived in Circuit Court on Wednesday.
Jones, who had been convicted on similar charges three times dating back to when he was eighteen, saw those crimes come back to haunt him when he was arrested in May.
A 2018 conviction for Domestic Battery and Assault on a Family member only resulted in five years of suspended sentences and in February of the following year, he picked up another Felony Domestic Battery charge. At that time, he was given a 24-month prison sentence with 48-months suspended.
By May of the following year, he was already out of prison and arrested again on charges of being a Felon in Possession of a Firearm> He failed to appear on those charges resulting in a warrant being issued for his arrest earlier this year.
In May, he was arrested on the Felony Domestic Battery charge that resulted in Wednesday's plea deal. He was arrested on the earlier warrant again on October 6 after failing to appear for a second time and has been in the SCADC since. He received credit against his new sentence for the time served since his arrest.
Jones was also ordered to have no contact with his victim after his evental release.
