Poplar Bluff man gets life in prison for crime spree

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- A Poplar Bluff man who broke out of jail while awaiting trial was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday after being convicted of 13 felonies.

After a three-day crime spree in February 2013, prosecutors charged Rodney Joe Green, 36, with a list of crimes ranging from first-degree assault to attempted rape and sodomy.

A Ripley County jury July 31 found Green guilty of 13 felony counts. An armed criminal action charge associated with the attempted rape charge was dismissed by the state at trial.

On Tuesday, Circuit Judge Michael Pritchett pronounced sentences on those convictions in Division I court in Butler County, some to run consecutively and others to run concurrently.

Green received the maximum sentence of life in prison on two counts of first-degree assault. On four counts of armed criminal action, he received 50 years on each count, and on three counts of first-degree robbery, he received 30 years on each count.

Green also received sentences of 75 years each on an attempted rape and a sodomy charges, 30 years for a burglary charge and seven years for resisting arrest.

Green's criminal acts began Feb. 1, 2013, when his car broke down, and he walked to a home on County Road 569 near Rombauer, Missouri. After the residents saw Green had a rifle, the woman slammed the door on him.

Green fired shots into the door, hitting the husband and wife, then stole a truck from the couple. The couple later were airlifted to a hospital for treatment of injuries that were not life-threatening.

Green assaulted another man on County Road 6263 near Fisk, Missouri, and stole his truck. He drove the truck to the home of a woman on Route W near Poplar Bluff, whom he restrained and attempted to rape before stealing her car.

He was driving that vehicle when, after a short chase with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, he crashed and was apprehended.

A month later on March 11, 2013, Green and two murder suspects -- Matthew B. Cook and Kade R. Stringfellow -- made an escape from the Butler County Jail. The trio removed a ceiling tile in a shower stall and slipped through the ceiling to the front entrance of the jail before heading outside. Green was not charged in that incident, but a video of the attempt was shown at trial.

Pertinent address:

Poplar Bluff, Mo.

Rombauer, Mo.

Fisk, Mo.