Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 24, 1995 TAG: 9503240092
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BREEA WILLINGHAM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
However, Judge William Sweeney disagreed and found Sims guilty of unlawful wounding, a felony, at Thursday's trial in Bedford County Circuit Court.
Sweeney said that because of Sims' age, he will wait for an investigation on Sims' background before he decides on the sentence.
Sims, 83, pleaded not guilty to the initial charge of malicious wounding for stabbing Barber, 68. Sweeney ruled that the incident was not malicious but was unlawful.
Barber, however, testified that on the night of June 4, 1994, Sims threatened to kill him and stabbed him with that in mind.
``I finished dinner and accidentally lit a cigarette, forgetting there's no smoking in the dining room,'' Barber said. ``By the time I lit the cigarette, I realized my mistake and apologized and put it out. Sims yelled, `Put that damn cigarette down!'''
Barber said he then left the dining room and went to watch people play pool.
``The next time I saw Sims was when I was going back to my room. He started again about the cigarette and jumped up and said, `I'm going to kill you, you SOB,' then he left. I had a conversation with other people in the hall, and they told me Sims didn't mean it.
``Then he burst through the door and hit me with the golf club. He was holding me with the golf club around my neck, and he cut me. He was standing there with a bloody knife, grinning. I never dreamed he was that low to have a knife with him.''
Barber added that he tried to avoid Sims as much as he could because ``Sims didn't get along with anyone.''
Bedford police Officer Jeff Kincaid testified that he found Barber lying in the hallway of the infirmary with several stab wounds to the abdomen and the chest, and that he was bleeding profusely.
``In fact, that's how I found him. There was a trail of blood from the front to the nurses' station,'' Kincaid said. He found Sims sitting in his living room, and when he asked what happened, Sims said, ``I stabbed him.''
Sims remained calm as he testified that Barber ``invited me outside to fight'' on a couple of occasions - once after Sims asked him not to talk during prayer and again after he reminded Barber about the smoking policy.
Sims added that after he left the dining room the night in question, he went to his room and could still hear Barber ``ranting and raving.''
``I thought, 'Maybe I can confront him in some way,' so I picked up the golf club and knife. I figured if he saw the weapons, maybe he'd calm down,'' Sims said.
When he went out to the veranda where Barber was sitting, Sims said Barber stood up and stepped toward him. That's when he hit Barber with the golf club.
``He grabbed the golf club and broke it and grabbed me around the throat, and I stabbed him,'' Sims said. ``Then I went back to my room and waited for the police.''
The prosecution maintained that Barber had been drinking, so he couldn't have threatened Sims with harm. A doctor testified that his alcohol level was 0.134 percent, which is over the legal limit for drunken driving. Barber said he'd had four or five beers.
``Did you have any more?'' Drew Davis, Sims' lawyer, asked.
``No,'' Barber replied.
``Are you sure you didn't have any more or any other alcohol - wine, liquor, whiskey?'' Davis asked again.
``Didn't I say no?'' Barber yelled.
Barber denied the defense's accusation that he continued to curse at Sims after the men left the dining room. ``I just told him [the cigarette incident] was none of his business, and it's still not.''
After he was stabbed, Barber said, he walked to the infirmary and passed out. ``I don't remember anything after that, so there's no point in asking me about it,'' he told Sims.
But Davis asked him, anyway, how many drinks he told the doctor he had.
``How hard is it for you to understand, counselor?'' Barber replied. ``I don't remember anything after I left the infirmary. Why do you keep asking me the same question over and over?''
During closing statements, Krantz stressed that Sims was the initial aggressor and was not acting in self-defense. ``He could've stayed in his room, but he took the law in his own hands and armed himself. That takes away his right of self-defense,'' Krantz said.
Davis argued that because Barber made a move toward Sims, Sims had the right to act in self-defense.
Sims remains free on bond.
by CNB