Suspect in baby’s beating escapes, is quickly recaptured
Published 7:35 pm Friday, November 11, 2016
- Xavier Sims
MOULTRIE, Ga. — A man accused just days ago of beating an infant was back behind bars within minutes of a Friday escape attempt after he crashed his getaway car across the road from the jail.
Police said that at about 10:15 a.m. jail inmate Xavier Lavare Sims walked out of his cell. Sims is known for an August 2011 bomb threat to that caused the shut down of all Colquitt County classroom facilities.
“A Colquitt County technical maintenance crew was working on some issues with (inmate) pod one,” Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office Inv. Austin Cannon said. “A rear door was left unsecured; they had propped it open” while performing the maintenance work.
No one saw Sims walk out of the pod, and he made his way to the west side of the pod in the area of the front gates, which also were open, Cannon said.
“A deputy was getting his car washed and noticed the suspect walking towards his vehicle,” he said. “The deputy made contact with the suspect and he identified himself as Xavier Sims.”
Sims then ran around the east side of the pod and a second officer began to follow him.
“Sims noticed the maintenance vehicle was unsecured,” Cannon said. “He got in the driver’s side of the vehicle and drove out of the gates.”
Both officers had to jump out of the utility truck’s path as the driver quickly built up speed. Another officer also recognized Sims as he was driving.
“As he was going out of the jail parking lot he struck a concrete barrier, slid into a patrol car, went across the median and struck a sign and crashed on the west side of Veterans Parkway.”
When the truck smashed into a concrete object it started spilling tools all over the parking lot and leaving a trail across of metal across the highway.
Amazingly, the van traveled through four lanes of traffic without striking any other cars.
Sims got out and started running south but was quickly caught by pursuing deputies.
Cannon estimated his time of freedom at about three minutes.
They could be an expensive few minutes as the 30-year-old Sims faces at least four felony counts from the latest incident.
Those charges include aggravated assault on a police officer, escape, criminal interference with government property and theft by taking motor vehicle.
He also faces a number of misdemeanor traffic charges from the Georgia State Patrol, which investigated the accident and got a statement from Sims.
Police arrested Sims, a suspect in an attack on his wife and her 6-month-old baby, on Oct. 3 after he had been on the run for six days.
Sims is accused of beating his wife Aquandria Harmon, 24, and hitting his 6-month-old stepson in the head at Harmon’s 820 Northside Drive apartment on the night of Oct. 29.
The baby was airlifted to an Atlanta hospital with a fracture to the left temple and a contusion in the same area of the head and brain, police said.
While on the run, Sims had called 911 several times, giving false information about his location, Moultrie police said.
Police said he did the same thing on Aug. 23, 2011. After calling in the bomb threat at about 9:15 a.m., he called Colquitt County 911 several times during the day. Those calls allowed police to locate him in Doerun, where he was hiding behind an exterior wall of a relative’s residence.
Sims was sentenced in 2012 to 30 months’ prison time and three years of supervised release after he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia to one count of making a bomb threat.
After receiving the bomb threat, school officials emptied classroom buildings, had parents pick up children and moved other students to other locations while fire, police and school personnel searched the schools. The school system canceled classes for the entire day.
No explosive device was found.
When Sims made the original call he said he was seeking “revenge” against a Moultrie police officer who had questioned him about statutory rape accusations.
