UPDATE 4/12/23:

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A man accused of domestic assault and holding his girlfriend hostage in a vehicle where they had lived for months will spend the next two years in a treatment program for offenders with drug addiction.

Joesi Bleu Simpson was sentenced to 10 years in prison for domestic assault, given credit for time served in Greene County Jail and assigned to the program under state statute Section 217.362.

That law grants the Department of Corrections authority to “design and implement an intensive long-term program for the treatment of chronic nonviolent offenders with serious substance abuse addictions.”

Generally, upon a defendant’s completion of a DOC treatment program, the department prepares a report for the court and the judge determines whether the defendant will be released on supervised probation and what type of conditions they must meet while on probation.

Simpson will spend the two years of treatment in custody.

Simpson also was sentenced as a persistent felony offender. He pleaded guilty to the assault charge under a plea agreement with Greene County prosecutors.

Original article published on March 9:

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A man was arrested after officers received a report of an assault in a parking lot.

Joesi Bleu Simpson, 28, was arrested and formally charged with one felony count of first-degree domestic assault.

Court documents show Springfield Police Department officers responded to a check well-being call at 3:49 a.m. on March 6.

The victim told police that Simpson was threatening to stash his drugs in her car and harm himself. She said he damaged her car window with a tire iron, swallowed glass and threatened to jump from a height in a Springfield parking garage.

It was found that the two had been living in a 2006 Chevrolet Equinox for months and that the victim had been held hostage. She said Simpson refused to let her leave the vehicle without him and threatened to hurt her if she tried to leave. She said he also forced her to inject methamphetamine.

Before the call, they were arguing inside the Equinox and Simpson began smashing the vehicle’s windows. When he stepped out to smash the windshield, she accelerated as he held onto the side door. She said she was not sure if he fell and was run over.

During an interview with the police, she showed bruises and wounds she said were caused by Simpson, including puncture wounds from a time he stabbed her in the thigh multiple times with a screwdriver.