Springfield man pleads not guilty to charges related to assault involving sword

Credit: Clark County Jail

Credit: Clark County Jail

A Springfield man pleaded not guilty on Monday in the Clark County Municipal Court on charges stemming from a domestic violence and assault involving a sword.

James N. Adkins, 23, was charged with three counts of domestic violence, five counts of aggravated menacing and three counts of assault, according to court records. He remains in the Clark County Jail.

Officers responded around 9:15 p.m. Friday to the 100 block of Broadway Street for a domestic disturbance and combative person in custody, according to several Springfield police reports.

When police arrived, they found a group outside the residence yelling and screaming before the suspect, later identified as Adkins, started yelling at the officers from the porch.

Adkins would not comply with officers’ requests for him to come down from the porch and stop yelling, so they approached the porch to remove him but Adkins pulled away and continued yelling, the report stated.

Officers were shortly able to get control of Adkins, place him in handcuffs and into the patrol vehicle.

Officers were then able to speak to the victim who said she was resting on the couch when Adkins came into the living room, chasing (a child victim) with a sword.

“(The victim) stated she looked up and saw Adkins with a sword in his hands and (he) charged at her and the (other child victim),” the report stated.

The victim told police she called for her husband to come downstairs, when Adkins also charged toward him, swung the sword and then chased him outside to the porch.

At that time, the victim was able to pull Adkins off her husband and a neighbor came outside to help break up the fight before officers arrived, the report stated.

As officers were trying to investigate the incident, Adkins began kicking the windows of the cruiser. Due to Adkins’ “high level of aggression,” the officers requested assistance from other officers to bring a police van to transport Adkins.

In the police van, Adkins began screaming, making verbal threats to the officers and banging his face against the metal cage causing injury to his face, the report stated.

Officers then took Adkins to Springfield Regional Medical Center to be checked out. While there, he was resisting and “flailing about” in the room where he had to be restrained by hospital staff.

While “flailing about,” Adkins kicked one of the hospital’s security guards in the throat. He also bit an officer’s hand, in which the officer deployed his pepper spray for him to stop, the report stated.

Adkins was then treated and released from the hospital before being placed in the Clark County Jail.

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