By Scott Loftis

A suspect with a pending felony warrant from Benton County for alleged domestic abuse was spotted by deputies with the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office at a residence near the county line on Thursday, Dec. 7, but managed to escape before the house was surrounded by law enforcement.

Jeremy James, 37, is the subject of an arrest warrant issued Nov. 15 in Benton County Circuit Court.

Carroll County Sheriff Daniel Klatt said CCSO deputies saw James in the front yard of the residence.

“They went by that house, just to get intel on it, and ended up seeing him in the front yard,” Klatt said. “As soon as he saw him, he bolted into the house. They went to go after him and he went out the front, I guess, and got away from them. But they didn’t see him go out the front, so they thought he was still possibly in the house. So we went in and made entry and of course he wasn’t there.”

The Tri-City Special Response Team cleared the house and made sure that James was no longer on the premises, Klatt said.

“We didn’t expect him to be there,” the sheriff said. “This just kind of fell in our lap.”

In a Facebook post Monday, Dec. 11, the CCSO said James is known to frequent Carroll County and southern Missouri. Anyone with information about James’ location is asked to contact law enforcement immediately.

In a probable-cause affidavit filed Nov. 15, deputy Joshua Sumler of the Benton County Sheriff’s Office writes that James allegedly repeatedly abused his girlfriend, including burning her with a torch and punching her in the face.

Sumler’s affidavit notes that James’ criminal history includes drug charges, assault and battery and child neglect and that James is “known to be violent toward law enforcement.”