Man Pleads Guilty in Death of Carthage Man

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — A man charged in the beating death of a Carthage man accepted a plea deal shortly before jury selection was to begin for his trial.

Thirty-two-year-old Ronald G. Inman of Webb City pleaded guilty Tuesday to voluntary manslaughter in the 2011 death 43-year-old Travis Weaver. Inman had been charged with second-degree murder.

The Joplin Globe reports Inman will be sentenced Sept. 23.

Prosecutors say Weaver died of blunt-force trauma to his head suffered during a dispute with Inman at a home east of Joplin.

Inman claimed he hit Weaver in self-defense as Weaver came at him with a knife. But a detective testified at an earlier hearing that no knife was found and blood evidence suggested Weaver was hit while he sat in a chair.