A former Farmington man was sentenced in November to serve three years in prison for pointing a gun at his ex-girlfriend’s head the day she tried to leave him and move out of their apartment in Mount Vernon.

James D. Oakes, 45, of New Sharon pleaded guilty last month in a Franklin County courtroom in Farmington to reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, domestic violence criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, and domestic violence terrorizing with a firearm.

A charge of attempted murder and domestic violence assault were dismissed in a settlement conference in November at a Farmington court, according to court documents.

“James took full responsibility immediately after everything happened,” Oakes’ attorney, Walter McKee of McKee Morgan Law in Augusta ,wrote in an email. “Everyone acknowledged that what happened was completely uncharacteristic of who James is.”
 
Oakes was accused of attempted murder after Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeffrey Brann responded to a complaint from a woman who called 911 about 8:35 a.m. on May 3 saying her 2024 Chevrolet Trailblazer crashed into a guardrail in New Sharon after a dispute with her ex-boyfriend, according to a police affidavit filed at a Farmington court.

The incident initially started at an apartment the two shared in Mount Vernon, the affidavit said. They had been together for about four months and she was packing to move out of state.

When the woman got out of the shower that morning, Oakes was reportedly standing in the doorway with a loaded rifle pointed at her and said “he was going to kill her and himself because he couldn’t live without her,” the affidavit said.

The woman talked him into putting the gun down and convinced him to go get a coffee and talk. They went to Dunkin’ on Wilton Road in Farmington and she told him she was going to take him to his mother’s house in New Sharon, police said.

At an intersection, Oakes tried to pull the vehicle to the side of the road. The former girlfriend pulled the car over, Oakes got out, jumped back in and then tried to “snap her neck,” according to police.

Oakes released her and grabbed the wheel again and drove, turning the vehicle toward the guardrail next to the bridge. The woman told police the impact lifted the back of the vehicle off the ground, nearly causing it to go into a brook 30 feet below.

Oakes then fled on foot toward Vienna Road and was eventually detained by Farmington police Sgt. Ethan Boyd.

The affidavit said that while being interviewed at the jail, Oakes told Brann the woman recently decided to break up with him. “James had been trying to handle the situation and help (her) move but he ‘lost his grip,’” it said. Oakes told Brann “he is messed up and needs to be seen by a psychiatrist,” the affidavit said.

Justice Nancy Mills, presiding in a Franklin County courtroom, sentenced Oakes to five years for reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon and suspended all but three years. He was ordered to serve four years of probation.

Mills sentenced Oakes to five years for domestic violence criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and 30 months on the domestic violence terrorizing, both fully suspended. He was ordered to served four years of probation.

He will get credit for time served.

Oakes also paid $8,000 in restitution to the victim.