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Woman who shot neighbor in birdseed feud gets 30 months
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A Paradise Valley-area woman who shot her neighbor in the groin over a dispute involving birdseed has been sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Sandra Luann Long, 67, who shot Dr. Darrell Sims, an oral surgeon, in the groin with a 12-gauge shotgun about 1 p.m. on Jan. 7, 2006 — and then laughed about it — entered into a plea deal to charges of aggravated assault on Jan. 18. She also was ordered to pay as much in $500,000 in restitution, and was sentenced on Jan. 24, according to Maricopa County Superior Court records.
Long and Sims, who were neighbors in the exclusive Clearwater Hills neighborhood near Paradise Valley, began feuding over property Sims bought from her in 1999. She began throwing birdseed down onto his property, attracting birds and rodents and hit Sims’ car with birdseed when she threw it, according to information from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office at the time of the incident. When she refused to stop tossing the birdseed into Sims’ yard, he threw rocks at her, sheriff’s deputies said.
Long initially tried to shoot Sims with a .38 caliber handgun, and before he disarmed her, she fired a shot into the wall of her garage.
Then, after Sims tossed a garbage can full of birdseed into Long’s swimming pool, she emerged from her garage with a 12-gauge shotgun, pointed it at him and fired.
Sims was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, where he underwent surgery for non-life threatening injuries.
Long initially claimed self defense.
Sims did not return telephone calls to the Tribune seeking comment.
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