Aurora’s Craig gets 10 years for domestic assault

By: 
Steve Chapman

Richard Craig

An Aurora man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree domestic assault. Richard Len Craig, 50, was sentenced on Monday, May 11. Two other charges he was facing, first-degree sodomy and first-degree kidnapping, were dismissed by prosecutors.
Craig was arrested on Feb. 21, 2019 after Lawrence County deputy sheriffs received a report that he had beaten a woman. According to the probable cause statement in the case, the victim said that two days before Craig was arrested, he had beaten her because she did not want to go with him to purchase alcohol. She said he grabbed her by the hair and choked her by placing both of his legs around her neck and then started hitting her in the face.
 At one point, she reported, Craig said, “It’s break time” and pulled her by the hair into the kitchen, got a beer from the refrigerator with his free hand, and then pulled her by the hair into their bedroom. After he finished drinking the beer, he said, “Break’s over” and began hitting her again.
After Craig stopped hitting the woman, he fell asleep on the bed. The woman said she was afraid to leave while he slept because he was a “light sleeper,” and she was afraid of what he would do if he woke up and found her trying to leave.
The next day, the woman went with Craig to buy alcohol, she said, because she was afraid of what would happen if she refused. She reported that she fixed him dinner later that evening, but he refused to eat it, and then came into the bedroom with a knife to his throat, stating he was going to kill himself to “show her how much he loved her.” Later, she said, he sexually assaulted her. Afterward, after Craig fell asleep, she said she left and went to an apartment next door. A woman there called 911.
Craig arrested following alleged abuse
Deputies arrested Craig and in a post-Miranda interview, told him the victim reported he had assaulted and sodomized her. Craig denied assaulting the woman, stating he was alone in his apartment, and then asked how he would have assaulted her when she was not there. The deputy informed him that the woman had been sent to the hospital in an ambulance. Craig said the victim was his girlfriend, but she had not been home in a week and he had not seen her. He claimed another woman had assaulted the victim, and that the victim was just trying to get him in trouble. He also said the victim’s face was “beat up pretty bad.”
The deputy asked Craig how he knew the victim’s face was beaten up if he hadn’t seen her; Craig said he had seen her. The deputy asked Craig why he said he hadn’t seen the victim earlier, Craig said he didn’t say that. He maintained that the victim was not at the apartment that night and he did not assault her. Craig was later taken to the Aurora City Jail.
Craig transferred to Fulton
Craig was transferred to the Missouri Department of Corrections on Friday, May 15, and is currently located at the Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center.
 

Category:

Lawrence County Record

312 S. Hickory St.
Mt. Vernon, MO, 65712
www.lawrencecountyrecord.com

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