Man gets 15 years for assaulting officer at Hoover Dam

A Las Vegas man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempting to ram a federal officer with a stolen car at Hoover Dam.

Joel K. Parker, 51, was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court. Parker was convicted June 30 of one felony count and one misdemeanor count of assaulting a federal officer.

The conviction stems from a February 2006 incident where he broke into a Henderson home and threatened to kill a woman unless she gave him her vehicle.

Parker then drove the vehicle to Hoover Dam and sped past security barriers. When he was approached by a federal officer, Parker accelerated in reverse and slammed into the officer's patrol vehicle, injuring the officer.

Parker fled in the vehicle and was stopped seven miles away after he ran over a spike strip.

Parker has four prior felony convictions in Clark County and a felony conviction in Los Angeles County. At the time of his arrest he was also wanted in Arkansas on an aggravated assault charge. He will serve his sentence consecutively with the three- to eight-year conviction he received for the robbery in Henderson.