Roy Phelps Jr., 54, Greenfield, had his case closed out late last week. He’ll serve most of his sentence through community corrections following a plea agreement deal.
HANCOCK COUNTY — A Greenfield man who allegedly held a woman hostage for days entered into a plea agreement with the state that calls for five of seven charges to be dismissed.
Roy E. Phelps Jr., 54, 900 block of W. Fourth Street, pleaded guilty to a Level 5 felony count of intimidation and a Level 6 felony count of domestic battery resulting in moderate bodily injury. The more serious charges, including a Level 3 felony count of criminal confinement when armed with a deadly weapon, were dropped.
Phelps’ case was closed Friday, June 17 in Hancock County Circuit Court when Judge Scott Sirk sentenced Phelps to a four-year term with 1,340 days suspended to probation for the Level 5 felony. Phelps was also given a two-year sentence with 610 days suspended to probation for the Level 6 felony. The two charges will run concurrent with two years running through Hancock County Community Corrections as a term of probation with the remaining two years to be served on formal probation.
Part of the plea agreement also dismisses a case against Phelps in Hancock County Superior Court 2 where three misdemeanor charges of resisting law enforcement, invasion of privacy, and possession of marijuana were dropped, records show.
The original charges against Phelps stemmed from an incident in October 2021 when law enforcement was asked to check on a county woman at a residence on Brook Street. A concerned friend told officials he had not heard from the woman there for several hours and she was with a man against whom she had an expired protective order.
According to a probable cause affidavit, when police arrived at the address, the woman told officers Phelps had been holding her hostage since the day before and had just run out the back of the residence. Police soon spotted him in a truck on North Street.
A brief chase occurred before Phelps was stopped and arrested in the front yard of a home in the 100 block of Howard Street.
The woman had bruising and lacerations around her mouth and told officers Phelps had a knife and threatened to kill her when she tried to leave. According to the affidavit, he told her, “If I can’t have you, then no one can.” The woman told investigators every time she tried to leave, Phelps would knock her down and strike her in the face. She also said that he eventually took her upstairs, where he tried to smother her with a pillow, the affidavit said, and put a power drill to her head, threatening her life.
