Lucas Levi Sims

NEW CUMBERLAND — Hancock County deputies started the new year by making an arrest in a longtime cold case.

Lucas Levi Sims, 41, formerly of East Liverpool, was preparing to be released Friday from the Belmont Correctional Institution in St. Clairsville, when deputies served him with two felony capias warrants related to the 2016 death of James Perl.

Currently, he is detained at the West Virginia Northern Regional Jail in Moundsville, as his case is considered by the county grand jury later this month. No bond has been established, according to the regional jail’s website.

Sims just had completed a seven-year prison sentence for severely assaulting another man.

With Friday’s arrest, deputies had another case on their minds that ended in murder more than nine years ago.

Perl died in August 2016 at an East Liverpool emergency room, after suffering blunt force trauma injuries during a fishing trip with Sims at the New Cumberland Locks and Dam.

However, due to jurisdictional issues related to the location of the possible offense and his later death, the case grew cold until Sims’ pending release.

Multiple calls to the Hancock County prosecutor for additional information regarding the Perl case have not been returned.

In September 2017, Hancock County dismissed a charge of malicious or lawful assault, causing bodily injury with intent to maim, disfigure, disable or kill, which were filed in November 2016 after Perl’s death was ruled a homicide.

If convicted of that charge, Sims would have faced up to 10 years in prison.