Parolee Attacks Homeowner, 62, at Random

A random attack at a home on County Road 8680 in West Plains left the homeowner bloody and bruised. Shortly before 6:00 a.m. on April 12, Howell County Sheriff's Deputies responded to a 911 call from a woman alone her home. A man she had never seen before approached her house with a walking stick and began hitting the house, yelling, and trying to enter the residence. 

"Very scary!" homeowner Sue Neitzel told Howell County News.

About thirty minutes after her husband left for work, a man later identified as Jason Mansker, 42 of Theodosia, walked up to their residence in the dark. She first called her husband for help and then dialed 911.

"I turned off the light so he wouldn't see me and called my husband who had left for work about 30 minutes before," she said in a message to the News. "The man came around to the door and started banging on it with the stick and trying to turn the door knob to get in. I then called 911 too. He continued to bang on the door, the side of the house, and was yelling and cussing. He even tried to climb on the roof by the way of a patio chair. I kept an eye on him till someone arrived. When my husband arrived, I turned on the porch light so he could see him, and my husband confronted him by asking what he was doing here."

Neitzel's husband Wesley Neitzel, 62, told Mansker to leave, but the intruder flew into a rage and hit the homeowner twice on the head with his walking stick. As the assault continued, "he picked up two of my clay [flower] pots and smashed them over my husband's head causing him to bleed all the way down to the ground," Mrs. Neitzel recounted.

A probable cause statement filed by Deputy Seth Smith echoes the victims' narrative, describing in detail the bloody scene at the home after he arrived.

Deputy Smith began to search the area and found Mansker hiding in a field about 75 yards away from the location of the assault. 

Neither of the homeowners had ever seen Mansker before, and there is no clear motive for his assault. Court documents describe the accused's behavior as "incoherent." Mrs. Neitzel told the News Mansker was "high on drugs for sure."

Mr. Neitzel suffered severe injuries to his head and face, his wife confirms. These injuries required eleven staples. 

Mansker has been charged with first degree assault of a special victim. Deputy Smith's probable cause statement requested special victim status on the charge because Mr. Neitzel's age meets the definition under Missouri law. 

Immediately prior to the attack at the Neitzels' home, Mansker allegedly assaulted two other people with a hammer. The victims declined to press charges. 

Mansker pled not guilty before the Hon. R. David Ray on April 13. The accused has remained in Howell County Jail since his arrest on a bond of $250,000.

Mansker was convicted in April of 2019 in Ozark County on burglary and stealing charges. He was sentenced to five years in the Department of Corrections, meaning the defendant was out on parole when he allegedly assaulted three people in West Plains last week. 

A bond hearing was scheduled after press time on April 19. The Neiztels had the opportunity to make a statement over the phone about Mansker's bond. 

"We want our community to know about this man and how dangerous he is," Mrs. Neitzel told the News. "[We are] praying he doesn't get out!"