Man sentenced to prison after hammer attack at Adams County mechanic shop

BRIGHTON, Colo. — A man was sentenced to prison after he attacked a co-worker with a hammer at an Adams County mechanic shop in 2021.

James Silvis, 55, was sentenced to 48 years in prison after he was convicted of attempted murder on Aug. 23, according to the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

The charges stems from Aug. 6, 2021, when he was working at a mechanic at E. 74th Avenue and Birch Street in Adams County. He grabbed a hammer, walked behind a 33-year-old co-worker who was sitting at a computer, and struck the back of the co-worker’s head with the claw side of the tool, the district attorney’s office said.

The co-worker fell to the ground. Silvis got into his car and fled before he was apprehended.

While talking with police, Silvis said he had “an ongoing issue” with the co-worker, but “admitted to assaulting the individual in an unprovoked manner,” according to the district attorney’s office.

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The co-worker had blunt force head trauma and suffered from a skull fracture, a brain laceration, and a hemorrhage. His emergency surgery was successful, but he still has cognitive issues, memory loss, left-eye blindness, a loss of fine motor skills, and lack of sensation in his left arm and leg, according to the district attorney’s office. He has left Colorado to live closer to family, who is helping him with these new challenges.

“This unprovoked and brutal attack has forever altered this victim’s life,” said District Attorney Brian Mason. “The defendant’s violence towards a co-worker is beyond comprehension. He justifiably must now serve a lengthy prison sentence for his crime.”

Silvis was convicted by an Adams County jury of attempted first-degree murder and first-degree assault – serious bodily injury with a deadly weapon. He was sentenced on Friday to 48 years in prison, which is the maximum sentence allowed for the conviction.