After a change of plea to guilty, Nickolas Sims was sentenced on a charge of operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol level over .08 in Montana 19th Judicial District Court on March 5.

Sims was sentenced to a six month suspended sentence with credit for time served and given a $600 fine. During his time suspended, Sims is not allowed to have alcohol or enter any bars, liquor stores or similar establishments. He is also not permitted to have any drugs that are not prescribed.

Judge Matt Cuffe said that Sims would have 30 days to enter into a program for alcohol abuse and until July 6 to pay all fines.

According to an affidavit from Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy Dale White, a call came into dispatch of a possible intoxicated driver at 11:30 p.m. May 14, 2017. The vehicle was on Highway 37 enroute to Eureka.

White encountered the vehicle and clocked it going 7 miles per hour over the speed limit south of Rexford, the affidavit states.

White followed the vehicle as it turned off of Highway 37 and came to a stop in a driveway. He noted that the driver appeared to be looking for something in the vehicle before White exited his vehicle.

When Sims attempted to tell White he was looking for his registration, he mispronounced the word. White also noted a “strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from Nickolas’s person.”

When asked how much he had to drink, Sims first tole White two beers, and later three.

Sims claimed to be enroute to Eureka, and said he had pulled off onto a side road because he did not want to get pulled over on the highway.

White administered a Standardized Field Sobriety Test and Sims had difficulty with several portions. When White took a breathalyzer, Sims blew .211. Twenty minutes later, he blew a .206.