Sperryville resident James Wayne Sisk pleaded guilty Monday in Rappahannock County Circuit Court to five felony charges tied to a Sperryville fight last January.
A Rappahannock County deputy was dispatched to a report of a fight in progress on Jan. 8, 2024 on Slate Mills Road, and was “advised that a firearm was involved in the fight,” according to a stipulation of facts agreed upon by the commonwealth and defendant.
When Deputy David Meade arrived, Sisk, 43, told him that he had performed car repairs for Lindsay Breeden, who came with friends to Sisk’s residence to pick up the vehicle, but had not paid him, according to court records.
One of the friends, Christopher Kenney, told the deputy that when the group arrived at the house, Sisk was hiding behind a tree with a knife, yelling at Breeden to get out of the car, refusing to give them the car without a $185 payment, according to the records.
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After the verbal altercation, Kenney said Sisk retrieved a firearm — a .22-caliber rifle — and threatened to shoot them, then began throwing hammers at them, according to court records, one striking Kenney on the ankle. Two other passengers in the car said they saw Sisk with the gun.
Sisk wrote in a letter to the court in May proclaiming his innocence, and said that he “had no gun” and that he had “a recorded phone call conversation where Mrs. Lindsay Lam was admitting that they lied and I had a machete not a gun.” He also alleged that he has four text messages in which she confirms that “they all lied.”
“I was lied on and I’m not guilty of this crime,” Sisk wrote in the letter.
A recorded jail phone call between Sisk and his brother, Mark, was later reviewed by law enforcement, in which Sisk told his brother the location of the gun, according to court documents. Mark Sisk then hid it in Culpeper County where it was later recovered by law enforcement, according to court records. Tests confirmed that Sisk’s DNA and fingerprints were on the firearm, according to court records, and a photo of Sisk holding the gun was discovered on his phone.
Sisk pleaded guilty to five charges — felony possession of ammunition, assault and battery, point/brandish a firearm, violent felon in possession of a firearm and possession of a schedule I or II controlled substance — according to the plea agreement. Three other charges — two counts of point/brandish a firearm and one count of destruction of property — were not prosecuted at this time.
After reviewing the case, Judge William Sharp accepted Sisk’s plea of guilty, and said the five-year mandatory sentence and “substantial suspended time” were reasonable.
If the plea agreement is accepted at sentencing on April 14, Sisk will serve a mandatory sentence of five years incarceration for the charge of felon in possession of a firearm charge, and a combined 12 years of suspended jail time for the other charges, according to the agreement. Sisk is also barred from contact with Kenney.
