A man found guilty of assaulting his son with a homemade sword was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison.

Zillanz Winter Falcon faced up to 16 years in the Department of Corrections.

District Judge Patrick Murphy said during sentencing that Falcon never once violated bond conditions but is a danger to the community.

Murphy said because Falcon injured his son with a sword and committed manslaughter more than a decade ago, he may assault “someone on the street” if he wasn’t sober.

The jury said Feb. 12 that Falcon (aka James Henry Culver) was guilty of second-degree assault, menacing and third-degree trespassing. He was not found guilty of attempted second-degree murder.

During closing arguments of the trial, Deputy District Attorney Stacey Turner said she wrote down 45 parts of Falcon’s testimony that didn’t make sense to her.

She said one of the illogical portions was Falcon telling the jury he was terrified of his son. Falcon confronted his son with a sword when he knew his son owned a gun, she said, and Falcon stayed on his son’s property for an extended amount of time after the assault. If Falcon was truly scared of James Howard Culver, he wouldn’t have done this, Turner said.

“Mr. Falcon is not a credible individual,” she said.

She said he knowingly trespassed on his son’s property and menaced him, she said, and his actions with the sword could have taken Culver’s life.

Falcon’s attorney, Riley Selleck, told the jury to stay open-minded when reaching a verdict.

“It’s a strange case, but there’s more than meets the eye,” he said.

Selleck said he would “argue until he is blue in the face” that Falcon never wanted to hurt his son.

When his sword struck Culver, it was accidental, he said.

He said Falcon’s suspicions of his son sexually assaulting his (Falcon’s) girlfriend weren’t “baseless.”

Selleck said Falcon’s girlfriend was the person who told him she was raped, she woke up in a different location when she and Falcon were staying the night at Culver’s house and she was bleeding after that night.

According to a press release issued by the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, Falcon, of Colorado Springs, assaulted his son, Culver, 24, with a 4- to 5-foot sword at Culver’s residence in Cotopaxi.

The arrest warrant was issued Jan. 20 after an investigation by the FCSO. Falcon, 52, was arrested Jan. 22, 2014, at his mother’s residence in Colorado Springs and was transported from the El Paso County Jail to the Fremont County Jail the next day.

A deputy with the FCSO testified during a preliminary hearing, and according to his investigation, Falcon informed him of an “alleged gang rape” of Falcon’s girlfriend by Culver and “30 of his friends,” which was allegedly projected on the side of a building in Colorado Springs. The deputy testified that when Falcon’s mother, who was providing residency for Falcon and his girlfriend, was interviewed, she stated that it was an “ongoing delusion” that Falcon had.

Falcon entered a not guilty plea in the case March 6, 2014.

According to a Park County court clerk, Falcon went to trial on a case and was found guilty of manslaughter, a class 4 felony. On Dec. 16, 2002, Falcon was sentenced to six years in the Department of Corrections and three years on parole for the manslaughter conviction.

Sarah Rose: 719-276-7648, roses@canoncitydailyrecord.com