6 years for Elgin Valentine's Day pipe beating

A 27-year-old Elgin man accused of beating his estranged wife's boyfriend on Valentine's Day this year with a metal pipe and then stepping in front of a truck in an apparent suicide attempt, has been sentenced to six years in prison.

Randall S. Sinks, of the 500 block of Douglas Avenue, faced up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to home invasion with a deadly weapon.

Under a plea agreement in which eight other charges were dropped, he received the minimum six years in prison and was fined $365, according to Kane County court records.

Judge Clint Hull accepted the plea last week.

Sinks was arrested Feb. 14, 2012, by Elgin police and accused of entering an Elgin apartment and beating a man in the head with a metal pipe.

Sinks then threatened suicide in a text message to his estranged wife and stepped in front of a semitrailer on Route 20, police said. He was hospitalized with a broken leg, broken ribs, collapsed lung and other injuries, police said.

According to court records, Elgin police arrested Sinks in June 2006 on charges of felony possession of between 30 and 500 grams of marijuana. He spent 19 days in jail, was fined $3,162 and given two years of probation. He also was arrested by Elgin police on misdemeanor charges of domestic battery Feb. 14, 2009, and Oct. 31, 2011, records show. Sinks received a year of court supervision after pleading guilty to both of those offenses.