Father given probation for tractor attack
A father who tried to run over his sons with a tractor will spend four years on probation and will be required to attend anger management classes.
The defendant, James Curtis Sims, entered a guilty plea this past week before Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley to the charge of aggravated assault for the incident which occurred in December on Bethany Road.
According to evidence presented in his preliminary hearing, Sims was dropped off at the home of one of his sons and asked the son to take him to get his vehicle. However, the son felt his father was under the influence of alcohol and refused.
At that point, the father reportedly stormed out of the house and the sound of a tractor echoed through the night air moments later. The man?s sons, both of whom are adults, watched as their father slammed into a Jeep with the tractor. Sims has been ordered to make restitution for damages he caused to his son?s Jeep.
After hitting the Jeep, the father turned the tractor toward his sons. One of the men ran down the road and hid in a wooded area while the other continued being chased by the slow-moving tractor. The son avoided the heavy piece of machinery, which was going at a slow rate of speed giving the son a chance to outrun it. The son said he father was so drunk he could not figure out how to take the tractor out of low gear, perhaps saving him from being run over.
The incident ended when the father stopped the tractor and began yelling at his nearest son, challenging him to come out and fight. The pause gave the younger Sims time enough to wrestle his father off the tractor and ?choke him out.?