A District man was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for threatening to kill his neighbor over a parking space. Authorities said James J. Newton Jr., 51, had repeatedly parked his car in the driveway of a neighbor on the 1200 block of 17th Street NE, even though he had been warned numerous times that he was not authorized to park there.
On February 2010, the neighbor found Newton’s vehicle in his driveway again — so he called police.
Officers ticketed the car and noticed that the temporary license tags on Newton’s vehicle had been forged and were expired. The police confiscated the tags.
When Newton returned to his car, he became angry and barged into the neighbor’s house and threatened to burn the house down.
The resident grabbed a machete that he had used earlier in the day to remove brush and ordered Newton out of the home.
Newton continued to come at the resident. The resident lowered the weapon and pushed he Newton out of his house with his free hand.
The resident called 911 and followed Newton out of the house.
Newton got back into his vehicle and backed it into the neighbor’s wooden fence. He then turned the car directly at the victim and tried to run him over, authorities said.
The neighbor jumped out of the way, and Newton narrowly missed striking him with his car.
When police caught up to Newton, he continued to make threats.
“Since I gotta do the time, I’m gonna give them a reason to lock me up,” Newton said, according to police. “I’m going to go back down and choke the [life] out of him. I’m gonna get my dogs to go over there and kill him.”
He then told the police that if they didn’t believe that he’d go through with his threats, they should check his criminal record.
Police determined that Newton had a prior conviction for manslaughter in Maryland in 1993, and several convictions for assault on a police officer since then.
Newton pleaded guilty in July to two counts of felony threats and one count of failure to appear for court.
