Law&Crime Sidebar - ‘Trashy’ Trick-or-Treat Mom Punched Teen Dressed as Pennywise: Cops

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

Halloween night took a dark turn when a mother allegedly hit a teenage girl in the face while out trick-or-treating. Trish Eubanks faces multiple charges in Paragould, Arkansas. With conflicting stories, social media outrage, and serious charges, trial attorney Alea Roberts joins Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber to break down what happened, the legal implications, and how public pressure could impact the case.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Black Friday has come early at Cozy Earth! Right now, you can head to https://cozyearth.com and use code LAWANDCRIME on top of their sitewide sale — giving you up to 40% off in savings. These deals won’t last, so start your holiday shopping today! And if you get a Post-Purchase Survey, be sure to mention you heard about Cozy Earth right here!HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. I'm really, I'm at a loss for words on all of this. And when she got close enough to my daughter, she started raining punches on my daughter like Mike Tyson. An Arkansas mother, an administrator at a local charity, is now accused of beating up a teenage girl while out trick-or-treating. This is a story that's almost too wild to be believed, and there is a lot of speculation online about what happened here. The girl's father took to social media to set the record straight in his eyes, and this is all as police took the alleged perpetrator into custody. So what happens next? Will online campaigns for justice help or hurt a future court case?

We're going to talk about it with a trial attorney right now. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. By the way, we're talking Halloween, but the holidays are just around the country. corner. And if you're thinking about that time, you're with family, you're with friends, food, all that, but you're thinking, what do I get somebody? Cozy Earth. Okay, this is our sponsor. Incredible. We got their bamboo pajama set. It's amazing. It's made with a soft stretch knit that sleeps cool, but still is so cozy for winter nights. The bubble cuddle blanket, the textured faux fur, plush, it is luxurious, it's great. The ultimate holiday gift for even

maybe the toughest people to shop for, you know who those are. Cozy Earth also has 100-night sleep trial, a 10-year warranty. So you can shop. and gift risk-free. And right now, Black Friday has come early at Cozy Earth. You stack my code, law and crime on top of their site-wide sale, you get up to 40% off. So wrap the ones you love and luxury with Cozy Earth. Halloween night. It's beloved by people of all ages, but especially children. And what's not to love? There's costumes, there's candy, there's a walk around the neighborhood with your friends. But I will tell you, one family in Arkansas says this past Halloween, it was a nightmare. And it was a nightmare that they won't soon forget. Why? According to

multiple people who say they saw what happened. You have a group of 15 to 20 people who were trick-or-treating on Lexi Lane. It's a neighborhood street that's lined with homes in the city of Parigold. And witnesses say there was an altercation between a grown woman, Trish Eubanks, and a 16-year-old girl that has been identified by the family as Josie Noblin. Knoblin's father says that Eubanks attacked the teen hitting her multiple times in the face. U-Banks apparently claims that the girl hit her first, and not knowing she was only 16 years of age, she hit her back in essentially self-defense. Either way, it's not great.

And we are talking witnesses here, right? Witnesses claim that U-Banks also allegedly made multiple threats that she was going to start shooting. Now, as supporters on one side or the other, they battle on social media about who was in the right here. This is what Paraguille police wrote up about their observations that night. Quote, upon arriving at the scene, officers observed injury to a 16-year-old female and she was transported from the scene via ambulance. Officers gathered the information available and forwarded the case to detectives upon learning that the juvenile had multiple serious injuries to her face and head. Detectives conducted numerous follow-up interviews and gathered additional information, which represented that the potential defendant, Trish Eubanks, threatened to shoot one individual, cause serious physical injury to the 16-year-old female,

and caused physical injury to another male on scene who was trying to separate the parties. The additional information provided showed that the defendant provoked the situation and did not remove herself from the situation while having the ability to do so. And as this story quickly spread around the small city over the weekend, there were loud demands from the community that Eubanks be arrested. And that is exactly what happened the following Monday. to jail records, Trish Eubanks was booked on charges of terroristic threatening in the first degree, battery in the second degree, and battery in the third degree, all on November 3rd.

She spent a little more than 24 hours in jail, per those jail records, and indicated that she posted a $50,000 bond and was released Tuesday at around 7 p.m. Now, Ms. Eubanks' arrest. It is notable because of her position in the community as well. She is still listed as, quote, the developmental director on the website for mission outreach of North East Arkansas. This is a charitable organization. According to the site, our development director plans all special events, meets with donors one-on-one, develops new fundraising campaigns, documents, and acknowledges all gifts, is involved in the community and administers our food programs. There's no word on whether Eubanks is going to be able to keep her position, but we do know,

thanks to social media, that a lot of people called the agency over the weekend to report this alleged assault. And with all the rumors flying all over the place, the teen's dad, Justin Noblin, and went live on Facebook to talk about what he saw go down on Halloween night. We're going to talk about that. So to discuss what he had to say, how the UBanks family are responding. I want to welcome trial attorney Alia Roberts to the studio. Ali, it's so good to see you. Thanks for taking the time.

Thank you, Jesse. This is a weird one. This is an unfortunate one. What are any thoughts on it? I think that it's sad first. I think that community is very, very important when things like this happen, right? Because everyone always asks the questions, where are the witnesses? Where's the video? Where are the photographs? What happened? And if all of these people are collectively saying, Miss Eubanks attached this 16-year-old girl, her defense as to whether or not she was 16 or not doesn't matter. You should assume she was 16 because it's Halloween and everyone's trick-or-treating and most of the youth are outside. And more importantly, against all of those things, you should keep your hands to yourself. I'm confused as to what type of defense that she's building as to she was hit first or she was attacked.

Well, is that a legitimate defense? Like if someone is 16, yes, they're a minor, but if they attack you, can you legally defend yourself? Legally, self-defense is always a defense, right? It just depends on the circumstances. I think it has to be reasonable, right? Anyone can make the defense of self-defense. And legally, she isn't right to make that if she was attacked first, if she wasn't fearful of herself. But she also had a duty to take care of her own self and retreat from the situation.

And what we're seeing here is that she did not. do that, right? She continued to attack this 16-year-old girl. Let's talk about this Facebook video. So Justin Knoblin, the father, was out with his children, according to him, including his 16-year-old daughter, and she was dressed as Pennywise the clown. Take a look. It was a crazy, crazy insane night. I need to tell the full story because there's a lot of confusion of what was happening, what was going on, who did what. But I'll do that now, I guess. So according to Noblen, he and Chris Eubanks, okay, had this falling out last year over a certain piece of hunting land and who had the right to be on it.

But he says that they had really no interaction since then until Halloween. Since then. And that was last year, the last time we had a good snow on the ground. As the last time I had seen or heard from any of these people until Halloween night. when I'm walking down the street with my babies looking to my right talking to a friend that was beside me

when somebody walked up, grabbed my shoulder and spun me around and started saying hey you're Justin, you're Justin, right? Hey Justin, how are you, Justin? And I would say, yeah, I'm Justin. Who are you? Because I didn't recognize him. And then he said some things

and reminded me of who he was. So I said, oh, yeah, I appreciate you trespassing on my land last year. So basically, Noblin seems to claim that he decided to bluff and say that he, Knoblin had actually hunted on Eubanks' land and taken down a big deer. And Noblin says in the Facebook Live that he never actually went on Eubanks land. He was just saying that. And that is when he claims Eubanks snapped and all hell broke loose. But as soon as I said that I had been on his land, he immediately,

started threatening to shoot me. At that point, his wife started threatening me as well and yelling and talking crazy. And then my daughter, Josie, being who she is, just like her daddy, ran in front of that woman, cussed her out, told her to quit talking to me like way, that there was children present, that she didn't need to say those things, and she didn't be acting like that. At that point, I grabbed my daughter, I turned her away and said, you're a kid she's a adult she's a grown woman let me handle this and i let go of her and i turned back around for her fat husband chris to grab me and shove me out of the way when i did that woman kept talking about she was going to shoot me i'm going to shoot you shoot you shoot you shoot you shoot you

she had both her hands in her pockets and she was inching closer and closer and closer to me when Josie saw that she jumped in between that woman and me there was about five feet between that woman and my child when that happened that woman continued to inch closer to me and my daughter saying she was going to shoot me

and when she got close enough to my daughter she started raining punches on my daughter like Mike Tyson my daughter's standing there in a Halloween costume with a bag full of candy in her hand, and this woman says that she thought she was an adult. She thinks my 95-pound child was an adult. When this woman started hitting my child, I jumped around her husband, grabbed my child,

turned her around to cover her from the punches, looked back just like this, and this woman punched me straight in my face. Crush my sinuses. I got a cut right here. This is a big cut. Okay. So, Alia, look, this is his version of events. Obviously, though, you know, you look at the injuries here, the apparent injuries to his daughter. First, let's start with the charge of, you know, terroristic threatening. It's not just making the claim of, I'm going to shoot you, but he describes these other alleged actions that she took moving closer, hands in the pocket. Do you think that would be hard to prove terroristic threatening like this?

I think it could be, of course, the witnesses would help corroborate if that actually happened, right? Whatever video was taken at the time, whatever individuals also heard those same things or saw those same things. And once you have at least one or two, right, it's a matter of credibility because there is cooperation. Once you have a witness or you have a video or you have a photograph, and even if you had none of those things, it's still a matter of credibility of this witness, right? Like if this individual says this is what happened to me, it's a prosecution's job to support that with all the additional evidence in this case. But you're seeing his version of events, which may very well be true. If it's true, that that's the timeline and how it escalated, then Trish Eubanks would be in a lot of trouble, right? I mean, in terms of there could be verbal provocation, but if she was the one who became physical first and started threatening first,

The law would say she's the aggressor and can't claim self-defense, right? Correct. Correct. Because if she has initiated this conversation, she's initiated the verbal threats, like you said, a verbal assault, arguably, like you said, making curse words. And then her self-defense up, I didn't know that she was a child. Of course you knew that she was a child. You knew that she was a child because as the father of the victim said that she was in a Halloween costume with candy. And he apparently also said, you're my daughter, you're my child, moved to the side.

Again, but the question is, is, obviously, defense would say, is he a reliable narrator? And B, from a legal point of view, you know, obviously he's a concerned father, wants to make a video, set the record straight in his eyes. But from a legal point of view, he's now tied to those statements, right? He's now tied to that version of events. And if it should change closer to a trial, that could be something a defense attorney works upon, right? Of course, of course. But the question is, what portions of the story change, right?

If he was on the left versus the right or if he was, it was three feet versus five feet, the question is, are these small minutia details important enough to discredit the entire situation of what happened? And in preparing for it today, I did go on social media and see what statements that I could find because there were individuals from the community. It wasn't just, you know, the victim's father. There were a lot of individuals in the community who had posed, you know, who said I saw what happened, who said, you know, like we were talking about calling for her to be removed from her position. So I think this is one of the situations where the community being around in this moment,

and it's being a very open space, this being something like that was very public, is going to be very, very either helpful or hurtful to the prosecution, depending on how you look at it. Now, according to Noblen, Chris Eubanks, again, the husband here, and another man grabbed him, held him back from the altercation, and Noblin claims that when that happened, they also shoved his wife. so this is Josie Stepmom, who's eight months pregnant. Take a look. While they're doing that to me and my wife, that woman, that sorry excuse for a woman, jumped back on my daughter. She was not hitting my daughter. My daughter wasn't hitting her.

My daughter wasn't near her. She ran and jumped on my daughter and started punching her more for a second time. and that's when 15 to 20 good people from this town jumped on her and started trying to pull her apart and she was locked in and would not let go and her entire face was bleeding profusely bleeding at that point as any father would I lost it I pulled my shirt off and I started screaming and these people were trying to run away. Why were they running away if they didn't do anything wrong? If it was self-defense, why'd you run away? I know that you guys think the same thing that I think,

however, I don't want anybody threatening her. I don't want anybody going to her house. I don't want anybody doing anything to her. I want her to sit there and pretend to be the perfect little thing she is and let these felony charges. change that attitude for? So Noblin has been calling for Chris Eubanks and this other man to be arrested for their part

or their alleged part in this altercation. Do you think that's something we should expect? I think so. Again, it's going to be very hard to prove based off of this account of events where the victim's father received these injuries, right? Because on his account, he never put hands on anyone except to remove his daughter from the situation.

And I think based off of that along, unless another version of events comes forth or another statement is put out, right now we only have one statement from him, the victim, but we also say it's from the community that say, this is what happened and this is what I saw. So unless the defense is going to say, well, that wasn't what happened, someone attacked me first, we have no evidence of that presently. Of course, as this case develops, as discovery develops, as we have, you know, testimony and everything like that, we might have another version, right?

We might have another version from the defendant and from her husband as to what happened. But presently, only one party or parties have injuries. And based off of the injuries, it appears that these victims are attacked. It's interesting you mentioned the injuries and photographing the injuries because Noblin says he was able to pull out his phone, snap a couple of quick photos before Eubanks allegedly tried to slap it out of his hand. And Josie, by the way, apparently posted a selfie from Arkansas Methodist Medical Center. Her face is partially obscured, but her mom posted photos showing the apparent progression of her

facial injuries on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and you can still see some kind of the red face pain from her Pennywise costume and now seemingly replaced by the bruises and the swelling. According to Josie's parents, she has multiple fractures. They're speaking with a specialist to see if she needs to have surgery. Justin Noblin is hoping that someone has a clearer video of what happened here. Take a listen. Anyone that was there that witnessed this woman hit my child, because again, she's claiming self-defense. Even though she's she went back and attacked my child a second time. I don't know how that self-defense, but,

and she's claiming my child ran up and hit her from behind. So if anybody saw the first hit from this lady or saw where she just jumped back on my daughter, I really need you to iterate that to the police department as much as possible. And, you know, there is something to be said that, you know, he's calling for this, so it seems to suggest a confidence in what he believes happened here. I will tell you, we mentioned this before. This case is really blowing up on social media.

So the photos of Josie's apparent injuries basically spreading like wildfire. Many of you're using the hashtag justice for Josie and these blue ribbons are going up all over Parigold with that slogan on them. And you wonder, you know, how that might affect this. And I'm going to ask you a Lee about that. But first, what does Eubanks have to say about all this? So local outlet, NEA report with N.A standing for Northeast Arkansas, tried to speak with Trish Eubanks, didn't get a response. Her husband, Chris, who we mentioned a lot, sent them a statement which says, I was with my wife on Halloween as we chaperoned our kids who were trick-or-treating when we had a regrettable encounter. A young woman was spewing foul language in front of the children, and when my wife

asked her to watch her language, the young woman who wore face paint and stood tall enough to appear to be an adult, struck my wife in the face. My wife defended herself as any reasonable person could be expected to do. We are hardworking, law-abiding, peace-loving people, and although my wife was assaulted first, our greatest hope is to put this matter behind us. So a completely different narrative. I do wonder if it all comes down to, you know, obviously there's different accounts here, but cell phone footage. It might, right? But I think it's very, very important if they're painting this whole I was attacked first argument, right? So if there are two separate encounters, even if the first encounter, let's say in this scenario that

Josie attacked this woman first, the first encounter was self-defense. How do you explain the second encounter? Isn't a progression, though? Correct. But then it's a situation of if I was attacked and I thought and I hit this person, at some point, if she's bleeding what they're saying and she has fractures of what they're saying, she was really putting a beating on this girl. Right, right, right, right.

So you couldn't have felt that you were in harm's way at some point when I'm now seeing gushing blood from another person I'm not bleeding. You can't make that argument because now the situation is, well, I see that she's bleeding. So a reasonable person, how do I feel that I'm still, I'm still, under threat? How do I feel that I'm still in danger if I am now causing the threat to another person? Because this is getting so much attention in the community, I was thinking how it might affect the case. I mean, even trying to get a jury. If people have opinions about this and are seeing this, I do wonder if I have to move it to a different venue. I mean, we're not at a trial yet. But how does that all affect a case like this public attention? I definitely think that

if I'm the defense attorney, I'm definitely going to try to remove this case to any other venue that is not the community. Because as you said, this doesn't seem to be a large community. So the individuals that are going to be summoned to be jurors are, of course, going to be tainted because they have so much information, right? It's blowing up on social media, like you said. The normal person is on social media every day. There's your neighbors. There's people that, oh, did you hear about this? Just in regular conversation. It's going to be very, very difficult to find jurors that have not been exposed to this case. Look, right now, it's not clear when Eubank's first appearance in court will be.

Noblen posted on Facebook that he was looking for an attorney for himself and his daughter to help navigate through everything that comes next in the legal process. And it's just a really distressing situation and horrible to see. We talked the legal aspects of it, but the human aspects of it. It's just a really unfortunate situation. Leah Roberts, great to see you. Thanks for taking the time. Always great to see you, Jesse. Thank you. You got it. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can follow me on X or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.