SALINE/POPE COs. – Authorities in Saline finally caught on to what a menace a Wasson man is after his arrest in Pope County, and a quick Saline County jury trial in early July sealed the deal.
Dan Curry, 44, of the Wasson area between Muddy and Eldorado, was found guilty by a jury of his peers on Thursday, July 12, after a two-day trial in which his victim – his own “loving” wife Tammy – actually testified truthfully against him in the felony Domestic Battery case he caught in mid-February.
Of course, it probably was a visual aid to the jury for Tammy Curry to have appeared on the stand with a few wounds on her arm, sustained in her “loving” hubby’s most recent alleged attack, which occurred at a rural camp site in Pope County on June 27 where the two were reportedly “hiding out.”
Reports also indicate Tammy Curry advised some in her circle that on the day of his verdict, Curry had told his wife that he was “running off to Texas” (where Curry’s biological father lives outside of Dallas; however, the two have been estranged for months after Curry’s father backed out on a motorcycle trade with his bio-offspring, which resulted in a verbal thrashing from said offspring, thus kicking off the estrangement), and the missus subsequently alerted authorities over it.
Whether that had any bearing on his going through the jury trial or not (as in, if authorities knew, they may have threatened him with more charges, which might’ve been what prompted him to select a jury trial to begin with, as he could just as easily have entered a plea and been done with it) is unknown.
What is known is that there are other felony charges in Saline still pending, some of them more serious than the one in which he was found guilty in mid-July…and then, of course, there’s the Pope County matter.
Authorities in Pope allege that on June 27, Curry committed a Class 3 felony Aggravated Battery in that while using a deadly weapon, a knife, he battered Tammy Curry by cutting her arm.
Acquaintances of Tammy Curry told Disclosure that this wasn’t just “cutting her arm,” advising that the wounds were so bad, at one point the medical professionals treating her were in fear she might lose the arm. That’s not been independently confirmed, and may have been an exaggeration on Tammy’s part, but that was the assessment about two days after the alleged attack.
A Class 4 felony Domestic Battery with enhanced sentencing owing to Curry’s violent criminal history (he has a felony battery conviction from 2015) was also filed in Pope over that incident, in which it’s alleged that Curry cut his wife’s arm with the knife and struck her in the mouth with closed fist.
A probable cause hearing was held June 26 for Curry, and he was given a $4,000 cash bond with an order to stay away from the missus were he to be able to post it (something that’s gotten Curry charged with no fewer than five misdemeanor bond violation charges this year alone, all based on his inability to follow instructions and stay away from his wife/victim).
Where the missus went (since they have largely abandoned the Wasson Road house, which has been foreclosed upon by a local bank) between that date and the trial date is largely unknown…but the neighbors on Wasson Road were thankful the two were gone, as back in December, both were caught allegedly shooting at each other, and neighbors were worried about a stray bullet going through the wall of the hovel and striking a child or grandchild.
Those charges are still pending for both in Saline.
With Dan Curry incarcerated at Saline for Pope and begging for a bond reduction (and being denied it) in the Pope case, Curry apparently thought it’d be a good idea to start disposing of his Saline County felonies, so he opted for a jury trial in the DomBatt one.
It went poorly for him, with the missus, as mentioned before, testifying truthfully, and he was convicted of the Class 4 felony. Now, two Saline felonies and five misdemeanors remain on the docket there, as well as the single felony still pending in Pope.
Curry is set to be sentenced on the Saline County conviction August 21. Fortunately for Tammy Curry, as of press time, hubby is being held at the Saline County Detention Center on the Pope County case, which is set for a prelim and bond reduction motion both on July 25. If Mrs. Curry’s good fortune holds, Judge Joe Leberman won’t reduce the bond, and Curry will remain firmly ensconced at the Saline County Detention Center until his sentencing on the Saline case. Saline County State’s Attorney Jayson Clark said the range of sentencing is one to six years in prison because of Curry’s criminal record. Whether he’ll actually get any prison time remains to be seen. It’s possible that he’ll get the minimum in Saline so that it appears someone is doing their job, then Pope will likely give a bit longer sentence should Curry be convicted there. Whether they’ll run it concurrently (at the same time) or consecutively (after the Saline sentence is finished) remains to be seen. But the bottom line is: If someone doesn’t take the initiative to keep Curry away from his wife – who continues to go back to him with each battery, to her own detriment – something much worse might happen than what already had.