Posted: Aug 18, 2011 5:48 AM
Updated: Aug 18, 2011 7:33 AM
The man who police say slipped away during a Madison County standoff Tuesday evening says he wasn't even in the county when the incident went down.
Police say the standoff started when deputies responded to a report of a domestic assault at a home along Francis Drive. Witnesses say they heard James Nelson, 50, arguing with deputies, and one officer deployed a Taser. Officials say Nelson shoved a deputy and then locked himself inside the house.
Police surrounded the home and evacuated nearby residents. But when police entered the house about an hour later, Nelson was nowhere to be found. Police say they think at some point, he slipped out the back.
Nelson turned himself in on Wednesday. But he says he wasn't in Madison County at the time and the whole thing was fabricated by his girlfriend, angry because he moved out.
"Yesterday, I wasn't even in Richmond. I was in London. With my mother," he said. "I didn't know nothing about it till I saw it on TV this morning."
He said that prompted him to check with Kentucky State Police in Richmond Wednesday afternoon.
"I didn't go in there to turn myself in. I went in there to see if they had a warrant on me, when I saw that on TV. And I couldn't believe it," he said.
He said he used to live on Frances Drive, but moved in with his mother in London. He says the ordeal was a trick his girlfriend played on him.
"She said, 'I'm not moving to London.' She said, 'I'll get you in trouble if you don't stay down here,'" he said.
When asked about an apparent Taser mark on his arm, Nelson claimed it was a bee sting, and he denied police talked to him before the standoff.
"There's a lot of people that look like people, you know what I mean?"
As for running from police?
"That's not true, or they would have apprehended me. I'm 50 years old, you know? I'm a big guy to run."
Nelson faces several charges, including two counts of assault, wanton endangerment, fleeing and evading police, and being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun. His arraignment is scheduled for Friday at 8:15 a.m.
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