A Springfield man pleaded guilty on April 1 to breaking into multiple houses in the Rountree neighborhood last summer, getting into bed with one woman and trying to put his penis into the mouth of another woman at a different house.
Gene Ferguson III, 42, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree burglary, a class B felony; one count of misdemeanor sexual misconduct; and first-degree sodomy, an unclassified felony.
Judge Todd Myers ordered a sentencing assessment report be conducted and scheduled Ferguson's sentencing hearing be held in July.
With his guilty plea, Ferguson also admits he is guilty of violating terms of his probation and parole from four other criminal convictions — one being a similar incident in 2019 when he broke into a Springfield home, pulled his pants down and got in bed with a woman. In this case, the woman’s husband beat Ferguson with a shower curtain rod until Ferguson fled.
Ferguson, as a prior and persistent felony offender, faces up to life in prison for the two burglary charges.
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors are dropping one count of first-degree sodomy.
According to information presented in court Monday, Ferguson entered the homes in the Rountree neighborhood in the early morning hours of July 23, 2023. At one home, a woman awoke to Ferguson standing in front of her with his penis in her face, attempting to put it into her mouth. The woman told police Ferguson was wearing a straw hat, glasses and a thong.
When she realized it wasn’t someone playing a prank, the woman called the police. The woman and a man, who also lived at the home, told police Ferguson was making “outlandish” statements that the couple had paid Ferguson for sex and that “he had a receipt,” Greene County Senior Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Joe Wantuck said at the plea hearing.
The couple did not know Ferguson and had not invited him into their home, Wantuck said.
On that same morning, police were also called to another home occupied by a mother and daughter. Ferguson apparently gained entrance to this home when the daughter took her dog out to the backyard. He went into the mother’s bedroom. Wantuck said the mother woke to Ferguson's “penis two inches from her face.”
When the woman yelled at Ferguson, Wantuck said Ferguson responded, “You want this ****, don't you?”
Police later found Ferguson in a nearby backyard wearing only a Boy Scout shirt.
At the time of his arrest in July 2023, he was on both probation and parole for prior convictions.
His probation and parole violations will also be dealt with at the sentencing hearing at 1:30 p.m. on July 12.
Ferguson remains in Greene County jail.
