Joseph Elledge pleads guilty to child abuse charges
A Columbia man pleaded guilty to child abuse charges three months after a jury convicted him of murdering his wife.
Joseph Elledge appeared in person at the Boone County Courthouse Tuesday morning and pleaded guilty to abuse of a child, first-degree endangerment of a child, and third-degree domestic assault.
Elledge originally pleaded not guilty to the charges in March 2020.
Boone County Judge Kevin Crane sentenced Elledge to ten years in prison for the child abuse crimes. Elledge will serve his ten years in addition to his 28-year prison sentence for murdering his wife Mengqi Ji.
Boone County Prosecutor Dan Knight told KRCG as part of the plea agreement, prosecutors will not charge Elledge with more felonies in relation to his second-degree murder conviction.
Those felonies would have included the abandonment of a corpse and multiple other charges related to tampering with physical evidence.
As a part of the agreement, defense attorneys said if the courts approve an appeal in Elledge’s murder case, then the prosecution would not be able to charge Elledge with any additional crimes.
