A man who held officers at bay for nearly four hours, poised on the edge of a cliff where they had cornered him, has been given a year behind bars.

The man, Christopher Johnson, 34, entered guilty pleas before General Sessions Judge Bill Locke to charges of domestic assault, interference with emergency calls, and evading arrest. He was given an 11-month, 29-day sentence to serve.

Lawmen arrived to arrest Johnson at his Bickford Road home late last year on a domestic abuse charge after he held a woman hostage in his home, physically abusing her and not allowing her to leave. The woman was able to get away from her assailant when she convinced him to allow her to take her sick daughter to a clinic. She passed a note to an employee there, telling them to call police. Johnson sped away when officers arrived.

While able to get away on that occasion, deputies arrived in force a short time later outside his Bickford Road home to take him into custody. Johnson fled on foot from his residence and led lawmen on a short chase that ended at the edge of a 60-foot bluff above the bone-chilling Collins River.

Officers negotiated for nearly four hours in the frigid cold before Johnson stepped away from the edge and surrendered. Lawmen say he jumped from the same cliff a few years ago to escape pursuing officers.