A 41-year-old Quincy, Illinois man is being held without bond in the Lewis County Jail after deputies say he threatened to shoot and kill two people at a Missouri residence before troopers caught up with him on a rural highway. Joshua R. Matson now faces a felony harassment charge stemming from threats deputies say he made on the evening of September 3, in addition to a driving while intoxicated arrest from the same night.
A Frantic Report and a Highway Stop
Lewis County Sheriff's deputies received a report of the incident just before 10 p.m. that night, according to the seed report from KHQA. Matson's fiancée reportedly told deputies that he had been drinking and was heading to the residence, and that he had previously had a gun before she took it away from him. Deputies say Matson made multiple threats to shoot and kill people at the home.
Officers began searching for Matson, and deputies along with a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper arrived at the residence as the search unfolded. Matson was located just after 10:30 p.m. on Missouri Highway 6, where officers stopped his vehicle. A Missouri State Highway Patrol arrest report shows troopers with Troop B, which is headquartered in Macon and covers 16 counties across northeast Missouri including Lewis and Marion counties, booked him at 10:42 p.m. in Marion County on initial charges of driving while intoxicated and speeding.
No Gun Found, But Admissions to Deputies
Officers reported finding no gun inside Matson's vehicle during the stop, though they did find alcohol. Matson reportedly told deputies he was on his way to the residence, and he admitted making statements threatening to shoot and kill people there. He was taken to the Lewis County Sheriff's Office, where he was arrested for driving while intoxicated and now is facing a first-degree harassment charge.
Under Missouri Revised Statute 565.090, prosecutors pursuing a first-degree harassment charge must prove Matson knowingly engaged in acts without good cause meant to intentionally cause emotional distress, and that the distress actually occurred. That statute is laid out in materials published by Rose Legal Services. The charge is classified as a Class E felony, the lowest felony tier in the state's five-class structure, and a conviction under Missouri Revised Statutes 558.011 and 558.002 could bring up to four years in state prison or up to a year in county jail, along with fines of as much as $10,000.
What the DWI Charge Could Mean
Separately, the driving while intoxicated charge Matson picked up on the highway stop is generally treated as a first-offense Class B misdemeanor under Missouri Revised Statute 577.010, carrying up to six months in jail, a 90-day license suspension, and fines up to $1,000, per the same Rose Legal Services materials. First-time DWI defendants with a blood alcohol concentration below 0.15% may be eligible for a Suspended Imposition of Sentence paired with at least two years of probation, an option that can keep a formal conviction off a driving record if completed successfully, according to guidance published by Dean Price Law reviewed for this case.
It remains unclear whether prosecutors will pursue the DWI charge as a standard first offense or seek anything beyond that baseline misdemeanor, and how the felony harassment charge will ultimately proceed. Matson is currently being held in the Lewis County Jail without bond.
A Rural County, A Cross-Border Commute
The case unfolds in one of Missouri's smallest and most sparsely populated jurisdictions. Lewis County had an estimated population of roughly 9,900 residents as of 2026, according to USAFacts, accounting for about 0.16% of Missouri's total population, with more than 90% of residents living in small towns or unincorporated areas. Monticello, the county seat, had just 104 residents in the 2020 Census, making it the least populous county seat in the state, per Wikipedia.
Missouri Highway 6, where troopers intercepted Matson's vehicle, runs 211 miles across northern Missouri and ends at its eastern terminus near Taylor, about six miles from Quincy, Illinois, according to Wikipedia's entry on the route. Quincy, known as the Gem City, sits on the Mississippi River in Adams County, Illinois, and functions as the main commercial hub just across the state line from rural northeast Missouri, a proximity that makes cross-border travel for work and commerce routine in the region, per Rome2Rio.
