Jury convicts man of felony failure to appear

A jury took around a half-hour to bring a guilty verdict against a man who probably would have otherwise gone free had he shown up in court when he was supposed to.

Jacob Angelo Massey, 38, was convicted of felony failure to appear on Wednesday morning after a two-day trial. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 16.

Massey was facing a charge of domestic battery with a prior felony after he was arrested Nov. 2, 2022, for slapping a woman and pushing her into a bookcase while she was talking to dispatchers.

His ex-girlfriend was trying to get him to leave her home and called the nonemergency line to find out whether she could have him evicted.

It took until Oct. 16, 2023, for Massey to be brought to trial when a jury was seated. After the first witness, a mistrial was declared, and Massey was released from custody with a Nov. 6 hearing date.

Massey failed to appear, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

He was taken into custody on Jan. 30 in Reno and was brought back to Douglas County.

According to prosecutors, he’d contacted the woman despite a court order. He was sentenced to 120 days in jail in East Fork Justice Court for violating that order.

The original domestic battery charge was dismissed on May 14 because jeopardy had attached to the case.

Massey was represented by attorney Max Stovall, while the case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Jim Sibley.

His previous felony conviction was the topic of regional media coverage after a January 2020 trial.

Jurors found him guilty after the survivor testified he choked her and held her down in the October 2019 altercation. At one point, she was able to get free and pick up a kitchen knife and when Massey came at her, she stabbed him and he fled with life-threatening injuries.

According to Nevada Department of Corrections records, he was paroled Jan. 3, 2022, after being sentenced to 2-6 years in prison for third domestic battery.