A 33-year-old Lake City man was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading to firing shots during a road rage incident north of Lawtey.
Christopher Mark Nicklas pleaded on March 18 to discharging a firearm from a vehicle, aggravated assault, DUI, and refusal to submit to a DUI test after a license suspension.
Deputy Lakiesha Lewis wrote in a July 17, 2023, arrest report that she met Lawtey Police Major Nathan R. Blom at the town’s Shell gasoline station about an alleged assault.
“During the conversation, Ofc. Blom directed a subject who was in a gold truck to stay in his vehicle and advised me that the subject was the aggressor in the road rage incident that involved a firearm,” wrote Lewis. “I then ordered the subject, who was later identified as Christopher Nicklas, to step out of the vehicle and get on the ground.”
Lewis added that she saw two shell casings on the driver’s seat when she reached the defendant’s truck.
“According to Nicklas, the shell casings were on the seat because he fired his weapon last night while sitting in his vehicle at some deer on his property,” the deputy wrote.
Lewis added that Nicklas smelled of alcohol.
“He also had bloodshot, glassy eyes. He was slow to speak and in and out of being coherent,” Lewis wrote. “I asked him several times if he had been drinking or doing drugs, He continued to state no, even after an empty alcohol bottle was found on the driver’s side of the vehicle.”
Lewis reported that she then interviewed the victim, who told her the incident started in Clay County, near U.S. 301’s intersection with Clay County Road 218.
“Nicklas started to drive aggressively by cutting in front of him, trying to turn into him, and changing his speed from fast to slow,” Lewis wrote. “(The victim) admitted he was driving fast to try to get away from Nicklas due to his aggressive driving but not before Nicklas pulled out a black in color handgun and pointed at him.”
The victim added that while viewing Nicklas in his rear-view mirror, he saw the weapon pointed in his direction and heard gunshots.
“He then floored his vehicle to try to get away,” Lewis wrote. “As (the victim) was giving his statement, he was visibly shaken up and terrified, and verbally told me he was simply scared for his life.”
The deputy recovered a black Taurus handgun, two 9mm shell casings, empty magazines, a pipe, and an empty bottle of alcohol from the defendant’s truck.
The defendant’s prior convictions include domestic battery, improper exhibition of a dangerous weapon, DUI, leaving the scene of an accident with property damage, possession of less than 20 grams of cannabis, disorderly intoxication, driving a vehicle without a registration, driving with a suspended or revoked license, and possession or use of drug paraphernalia,
