Jonathan Beal

Most residents who live in Kennett, Mo., will tell you the area is a safe, family-oriented, Christian community; low on crime, high on morals.

By most accounts this is a true statement. However, things do occur in small-town U.S.A. from time to time, and some residents like James Squires, 53, have experienced first-hand what it is like to fall victim to acts of crime and injustices.

Jerel Anthony

During the past Christmas holiday season, Squires had just gotten off work from his job at Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center in Kennett where he works in the maintenance department, when three men beat him and left him for dead as he walked home.

According to Squires, what was even more disturbing was that the incident happened only a few feet away from the "safety" of his home.

Squires son, Adam, spoke with a reporter from the Daily Dunklin Democrat in late December 2007 regarding the incident. He told reporters for the publication that no family should have to endure something like what his father went through that awful night.

Squires said his father remembered that the people who attacked him were African-American. His father also said he was sure there were three of them participating in the attack.

Squires, who survived the attack told the police that the men first approached him and demanded he turn his money over to them.

According to Squires' son, when his father told the men he had no money, they laughed at him and told him they were for real.

When the man said no again to their demands, they beat him nearly unconscious.

Squires told KFVS 12 News in Cape Girardeau that after the men first beat him and started to walk away, he reached for his glasses that had been knocked off his face, only to learn the hard way that the men had came back to the scene "to finish him."

Squires claims that he laid on the side of the street near the 900 block of South Anthony in Kennett for nearly an hour before he was able to regain complete consciousness and enough will to get himself up off the ground to get help.

According to Dr. Jay Sheets, an oral surgeon who was able to reconstruct areas of Squires face which suffered several breaks and fractures as a result of the beating, Squires entire jaw area on both sides of his face was broken in several areas.

Sheets told a reporter in December that, since he could not put Squires' entire head in a cast, he was forced to wire his upper and lower jaw together.

Kennett Police were involved in the investigation of the crime, according to Major Steve Williams, who in December said their report indicated that Squires told officers who responded to the call that he was only struck in the face about two times.

Williams also told reporters the officer's report indicated that Squires did not want an ambulance and refused medical treatment at that time.

Between the two conflicting accounts of the incident and the intense emotions involved surrounding the victim, the Squires' family made suggestions that the police department was not doing all that it could to protect a resident of its community and to find justice.

Williams, on behalf of the department, had his own feelings about the case.

"I understand that the family is upset about the assault, but to say we are not concerned and that we are not investigating the case is not true at all," Williams told the Democrat in 2007.

"We have had only one lead in this case," Williams added. "We received a call at 12:15 a.m., Friday morning from a lady who said the man who attacked Squires were at a nearby residence at that time.When we got there, no one was there."

Since then things have turned around for the Squires family, after three months of investigation, the Kennett Police Department obtained enough information to move forward in the case.

According to Williams, two men have just been arrested in connection with Squires attack and have been charged with attempted robbery and first degree assault. Both charges are considered class A felony offenses.

The two suspects include Jonathan Lamar Beal, 21, who reports both a Jonesboro, Ark. and Kennett address; and Jerel Bontain Anthony, Jr., 23, of Highway VV in Kennett.

Following probable cause affidavits being sent to the Dunklin County Prosecuting Attorney's office, warrants were issued for both Beal and Anthony, who were later incarcerated on $100,000 bonds and sent to the Dunklin County Justice Center.

A third suspect, who has yet to be named, is still being sought by the Kennett Police Department.

According to court records, Beal will be represented in court by public defender Brice Joseph Donnelly. He is to appear for a preliminary hearing before Judge Spielman on April 8, 2008.

Anthony is scheduled for a preliminary meeting before Spielman on March 25, 2008.