"There's no time that a man should ever put his hands on a woman, you know. I wasn't in my right mind at the time," says James Privett III.
Privett says he was on drugs when he attacked his wife with a meat cleaver at a Williamsburg home last month.
"We was having a scuffle. We was and I was just attacked. I was messed up on drugs and thought I was defending myself. It's not like I went in there and grabbed the cleaver myself and came at her like, you know, I'm wanting to do this. I wasn't attempting to kill anybody," comments Privett.
But authorities believe otherwise and indicted the 26-year-old with attempted murder Wednesday. Privett says his wife was taken to the hospital and released but he hasn't spoken with her since that night. He says he has something to tell her and is asking for something from her in return.
"I'm very sorry. I love her. I wish that she could forgive me," says Privett.
This isn't the first time Privett's been in trouble with the law. He says he's been in and out of jail since he was a juvenile.
"I've had a couple assault charges. I've had PIs, drug paraphernalia charges but nothing this major," explains Privett.
And he says he's learned a lot from this incident.
"If you love somebody and you're having problems like me and my wife were having at the time. Like the old saying ,if you love something let it go and it comes back, you know it's meant to be. But, I think I was trying to hold onto something for too long," comments Privett.
Privett had to be moved from the Whitley County Jail to the Laurel County Jail after death threats. He's behind bars on $1 million bond.
