A rural Mountain Home man who was shot by a homeowner when he broke into the man’s home and refused to leave appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court last Monday.
Twenty-nine-year-old Alex Stoops pled guilty to the charges against him and was put on probation for six years.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Stoops was reported to have initially knocked on the front door of the home located along Driftwood Drive in mid-January. The couple living in the home did not recognize the person seeking to gain entry and did not answer the door.
Stoops is alleged to have gotten into the house by breaking the glass out of a sliding door at the rear of the residence.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Stoops refused to leave, claiming the house belonged to him.
Stoops and the homeowner got into an altercation and the owner was pushed down, cutting his hands on the broken glass from the door. His wife’s feet were also reported to have been cut by the glass.
Investigators report that when Stoops eventually went outside, the homeowner retrieved a .22-caliber rifle, followed the suspect outside and fired two warning shots in the air.
Stoops was reported to have followed the victim back into the house, where the man fired a single shot hitting Stoops in the shoulder. The wounded man went back outside.
Baxter County sheriff’s deputies arrived on scene and interviewed a neighbor who said Stoops was staying with her and she believed he had walked into the wrong house because it looked like her residence.
Stoops was interviewed at Baxter Health and deputies noted he was “very intoxicated” and did not appear to remember what had happened to him.
After he was released from the hospital, Stoops was booked into the Baxter County jail on charges of residential burglary, criminal mischief, criminal trespass, battery, assault and public intoxication.
It was reported to the court that Stoops will shortly complete a rehabilitation program.
In addition to his probation sentence, Stoops was ordered to pay about $1,100 in victim restitution.
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