PORT ANGELES — A 65-year-old Sequim man has been sentenced for second-degree attempted assault with a deadly weapon after he pointed a loaded high-caliber handgun at a car he was trying to pass on a county road just west of Carlsborg.
In what the Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office described as a “road rage” incident, James Edward Jones pleaded guilty Tuesday and has been sentenced to 30 days of community service and 32 days of electronic home-monitoring, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Troberg said.
He pointed a loaded .45-caliber pistol at a car carrying a man, woman and their two children while Jones was driving behind them on Spath Road at about 6:30 p.m. March 22, authorities said.
“I would say it’s relatively rare,” Troberg said when asked whether such cases of drivers pointing guns at other drivers is common.
Troberg said the introduction of the firearm made the case more serious than one driver simply being upset with another.
“That ramps up the level of things,” Troberg said.
“That can go very badly very quickly.”
Guilty plea
The charging documents list a La Pine, Ore., address for Jones, though Troberg said Jones gave a Sequim address to Superior Court on Tuesday.
Jones lost the right to own a firearm as part of his guilty plea, according to Superior Court documents.
County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Wagner gave the following account of the events leading to the charge:
Jones attempted to pass a car on Spath Road but was unable to do so when the man driving the other car sped up.
The woman in the other car told Wagner she saw Jones driving his car with his left hand and pointing a silver pistol out the window at them with his right.
Jones followed them until he turned onto McCawley Drive, which stems south from Spath Road, but later returned to Spath and followed the other car, still holding the pistol, to Kitchen-Dick Road.
The family turned north onto Kitchen-Dick Road, while Jones turned around and headed back east on Spath Road.
Pistol found in home
Deputies obtained a search warrant for a West Buena Vista Drive home in Sequim and found a loaded Taurus .45-caliber pistol inside a lunch box under a dish towel.
Jones and the couple were driving just north of the Buena Vista Drive address.
Troberg said then that a friend of Jones’ was living at that house.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.