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Tuckasegee man pleads guilty to knife assaults

A Tuckasegee man who twice used knives to slash the necks of two men on separate occasions is headed to prison, District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch said.

David Ray “Q-Tip” Sims, 46, pleaded guilty this week in Jackson County Superior Court to two counts assault with deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.  

Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Kuehnert sentenced Sims to serve 96-128 months in the Division of Adult Corrections. 

Both assaults took place in Tuckasegee community, one on April 15, 2021, and the other on Oct. 20, 2019.

The most recent incident occurred on Crane Road. A man arrived home to find Sims at his house, where, because of prior theft, he’d been ordered not to be.

The victim repeatedly told Sims to leave. Sims would not. Just when the victim and another individual were headed to call law enforcement, Sims attacked the victim, slicing him with a knife on the left side of his neck, leaving a more than 4-inch gash.

An emergency-room doctor told law enforcement that the victim “had been very fortunate to have not been fatally injured as the cut had barely missed severing a major artery, by millimeters,” according to the incident report.

On Oct. 20, 2019, Sims went to Los Garcia Tienda Store in Tuckasegee, where Sims accused an individual of stealing his bicycle. Again, Sims reached for his knife. He slashed at the victim, who moved back. The man suffered a 1-inch or so laceration. 

Assistant District Attorney Andy Buckner prosecuted the case.

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