For the second time in his life, a Springfield man is charged with endangering the welfare of a child creating a substantial risk.
In 2019, Brandon Scott Shepard was charged with — and later pleaded guilty to — child endangerment. An 11-month-old child was found to have been exposed to methamphetamine while in Shepard’s care.
According to court documents, the child in the 2019 case was taken to a hospital where he tested positive for having the illicit drug meth in his system, and exhibited symptoms including “general agitation and chewing on his own arm.”
At the time, Shepard admitted to being a frequent meth user and suggested maybe some meth fell out of his pocket and the child ate it, or that maybe Shepard had meth residue on his hands when he picked up the baby.
Shepard was sentenced in 2020 to seven years in prison, but that sentence was suspended and he was given five years of probation. Since it was Shepard’s first child endangerment charge, it was a class D felony under Missouri law.
Fast forward a few years and online court records show Shepard has repeatedly violated terms of his probation and is back in the Greene County Jail — once again charged with endangering the welfare of a child creating a substantial risk.
Shepard is scheduled to be in court for these new charges on Friday, June 14.
Since this is the second time Shepard is charged with child endangerment, it is a class C felony, punishable by a minimum of three and a maximum of 10 years in prison under Missouri sentencing guidelines.
Alleged domestic assault leads to child endangerment, resisting arrest charges
The child in Shepard's 2024 case is not the same child from the 2019 case. Identifying information about the victims was redacted in the probable cause statements, and they do not say if or how Shepard is related to either child.
According to a probable cause statement written by a Springfield police officer, law enforcement agents were looking for Shepard after he allegedly assaulted a woman on April 19, 2024, and strangled her to the point she could not breathe and her body went limp. Shepard then allegedly left the woman, took the woman’s 18-month-old child and drove away.
Shepard allegedly sent text messages to the woman, threatening to commit suicide and that she would never see her children again. Shepard told the victim he’d taken her older child out of school, but that was a lie, the officer wrote in his report.
As they investigated the case, Springfield police pinged Shepard’s cell phone to an address in Greene County. Deputies with the Greene County Sheriff's Office responded to the address and saw Shepard’s vehicle in the driveway. A deputy saw Shepard on the home's front porch.
A deputy approached Shepard, who began walking away and then running away onto neighboring properties, according to the probable cause statement.
Shepard was later located hiding under a camper shell and arrested.
But after Shepard ran away, deputies found the 18-month-old toddler in Shepard’s vehicle. The child was in a car seat with the vehicle's engine not running. The front passenger window was partially down and the rear passenger window was cracked, the deputy noted in his report.
The deputy described the child as “getting fussy,” “hot to the touch,” and “had a soiled diaper.”
The deputy also noted Shepard is on probation for a second-degree robbery conviction and the 2019 conviction of endangering the welfare of a child creating a substantial risk.
Victim doesn't cooperate with case, domestic assault charges dropped
Shepard is charged with the class C felony of endangering the welfare of a child creating a substantial risk and the class E felony of resisting arrest for a felony.
Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson said Shepard was originally also charged with domestic assaults. But the victim did not appear for a preliminary hearing on May 30, 2024, so those charges were dismissed.
Shepard is to be arraigned on the recent charges — plus a tampering with a vehicle charge from an unrelated incident — on Friday, June 14, in Judge Kaiti Greenwade's courtroom in Springfield.
Shepard is scheduled for a hearing on the probation violation reports from the 2019 case on July 17 in Judge Todd Myers' courtroom.
