Career criminal Ford gets 19 years for robbery, resisting arrest

Springfield man sentenced for actions leading to 2020 manhunt by local authorities
A Springfield man who was captured in Mt. Vernon last year after fleeing police will spend 19 years in prison on two felony charges. Christopher Stephens Ford, 44, was sentenced on Wednesday, Dec. 8 to 15 years in prison for second-degree robbery and four years for resisting arrest, with the sentences running consecutively. He was found guilty of the charges on June 10.
On March 1, 2020, Ford, who was wanted for several outstanding felonies in Webster County at the time, was pursued by law enforcement during a chase that began in Sarcoxie and ended in Mt. Vernon. After getting his vehicle stuck in a field, Ford abandoned it and fled into the woods, where he managed to avoid being captured. The next day, however, he was spotted at the Mt. Vernon Wal-Mart and, after a brief foot chase, was captured when Mt. Vernon Chief of Police Dave Hubert tackled him. Within an hour of his capture, Ford was released to Webster County authorities.

History of criminality
Ford’s sentence was only the latest in his string of legal woes. He was found guilty in Webster County of kidnapping, domestic assault, violating an order of protection for an adult and tampering with a motor vehicle in Webster County in October of last year. He was later sentenced in December of 2020 to three years in prison for the kidnapping charge, and a total of one year in jail for the domestic assault and violating an order of protection charges. Ford was also fined $10,000 on the kidnapping charge, $5,000 on the domestic assault charge and $1,000 each on the two remaining charges.
In a separate case, Ford pleaded guilty on April 8 of this year to possession of a controlled substance in Webster County and was sentenced to seven years in prison; the sentence was set to run consecutively with his sentence for kidnapping, domestic assault and violating an order of protection. It was not immediately clear if his sentence in Lawrence County would run consecutively or concurrently with his sentences in Webster County.
Ford was booked into the Lawrence County Jail on Tuesday, Sept. 7, presumably for his sentencing hearing, and released back to the Missouri Department of Correction on Thursday, Sept. 9.