Assault on sister lands man in prison

COEUR d'ALENE - A 44-year-old Post Falls man was sentenced Friday to as long as five years in prison for felony aggravated assault.

The Kootenai County Prosecutor's Office announced that this was Thomas Farmer's fifth felony conviction.

Farmer was sentenced by 1st District Court Judge Lansing Haynes, who ordered that the first two years of the sentence would be fixed, and the remaining three years would be indeterminate. He was given credit for time served.

Farmer entered an Alford plea. By doing so he didn't admit guilt, but admitted the state probably could obtain a guilty conviction from a jury.

The aggravated assault was related to a Jan. 14 incident in which Farmer attacked his sister and threatened to kill her.

The assault occurred after Farmer's sister told him to leave her and their mother's home because Farmer was intoxicated. Farmer had recently been released from parole in California and had moved in with his sister and mother in Post Falls.

"The sentence was appropriate, given the danger Farmer presents to the community by his continuing choice to use violence as a problem-solving tool," said Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh.

The fixed term guarantees that Farmer will not be able to endanger the community for two years, during which time he will be evaluated by the Idaho Department of Correction to determine whether he is an appropriate candidate for parole or continues to be a risk to the public and should spend the rest of his term in prison.