STUART, Va. — The 2019 stabbing of an Ararat resident, who was hospitalized in Winston-Salem with life-threatening wounds, has led to a 20-year term being meted out this week to a man charged in the incident.
Larry Dale Puckett of Pedigo Ridge Road, Claudville, who was 57 when the assault occurred on Oct. 13, 2019, in a roadway outside the home of the victim, was sentenced Monday.
Justin Sinclair Hawks of The Hollow Road, then 29, was stabbed multiple times by Puckett as part of what a Patrick County Sheriff’s Office investigator has termed “a longtime altercation” between the two acquaintances. Hawks initially was listed in serious condition at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center before recovering.
Puckett was jailed without privilege of bond on a charge of aggravated malicious wounding and pleaded not guilty to the felony violation before a scheduled jury trial earlier this year which court records indicate was continued.
Records show the judicial process ultimately led to a guilty verdict on an amended charge of malicious wounding for Puckett, who received the active prison term in Patrick County Circuit Court after a pre-sentencing report was prepared.
While the sentence is 20 years, eight years of that is suspended, according to court records, with Puckett to be on probation for five years upon his release from prison.
The Claudville man had a previous conviction for robbery in 2001.
Details surrounding the October 2019 stabbing were murky, which Investigator Tyler Wilson has indicated resulted from an ongoing series of issues between Puckett and Hawks.
“It’s a really long story,” Wilson added at the time, describing it as extremely complicated, without elaborating.
One media outlet reported that Hawks was trying to help Puckett with an undisclosed matter, but Puckett did not like what Hawks had to say.
Deputies found the badly injured man at the residence of a neighbor on The Hollow Road just before midnight on the evening of the stabbing.
Puckett was arrested about four hours later at a home where he had been staying not far from where Hawks was located.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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