
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 26, 1995                   TAG: 9505260070
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MAN, 83, SENTENCED IN ELK STABBING

An 83-year-old former resident of the National Elks Home was ordered Thursday to serve 30 days in jail for stabbing a 68-year-old fellow resident last year.

Bedford County Circuit Judge William Sweeney cited John Haskell Sims' advanced age and clean criminal record as he sentenced Sims to 12 months in jail, with 11 months suspended, in the malicious wounding of Dewey Riley Barber.

Sims, who now lives in Florida, pleaded guilty earlier this year. He armed himself with a golf club and a knife last summer after he and Barber argued one night at the Elks Home dinner table. After a brief struggle, Sims stabbed Barber twice in the chest and abdomen.

Barber sustained wounds to the liver and was in intensive care for six days after the stabbing.

by CNB