commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Note: There are rumors that David Lee Simpson’s trial is apparently either under way or about to begin but I can’t find any actual corroborating evidence.
It is well-known that a great many of the women who closely followed the Jodi Arias trial despise the very ground (or currently concrete) that she walks upon. I imagine it is some combination of the fact that she brutally slaughtered the fresh-faced Travis Alexander — with his boy next door good looks and his apparently pleasing motivational-speaker ways — combined with the fact that Jodi is perceived by many as a prevaricating, promiscuous, manipulative, anal-sex loving, prima donna.
It turns out, however, that there are some men wandering about this land who actually prefer Jodi to Travis, and in some cases even had (or still have) powerful crushes on the allegedly good-looking young murderess. Fortunately, I do not fall into that category. With my monk-like ways, I am largely indifferent to Jodi’s personal appearance and simply find poor Travis to be very dead. That much is clear. My feelings toward him are no different than my feelings toward any unfortunate soul who has the bad luck to be murdered as a result of a love affair gone wrong.
But this brief post is not about me and my feelings for Jodi and poor Travis. This post is about an arguably dangerous man named David Lee Simpson, a 48-year old resident of Bath, New York, who is charged with three felony counts of computer tampering and two felony counts of stalking, based on online threats he made against HLN’s Nancy Grace and Jane Velez-Mitchell and an unnamed Phoenix newswoman. David Lohr at Huffington Post has the story:
According to Maricopa County prosecutor Edward Leiter, Simpson — who had apparently become infatuated with Jodi — became so incensed and hostile toward Nancy Grace and Jane Velez-Mitchell because of the negative things they were saying about Arias both before and during the course of the trial that he tweeted in June that he wanted to tie them to a “tree naked and leave them to suffer all night” and then “slit their throats.” Although this may or may not have been quite enough on its own to land Simpson in the slammer, he made it much worse by allegedly telling a co-worker at an auto repair shop in Bath that he wanted to gut one of the TV commentators “like a deer.”
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has reiterated that Simpson made the threats because he was “infatuated with Jodi Arias” and was upset with all the nasty things that the two broadcasters were saying about her while covering her murder trial.
The coffin nail for Simpson was that during a (not so) routine traffic stop on July 17th, while still in New York but reportedly on his way to Georgia to “take care of business” with Nancy Grace, the police searched his vehicle and allegedly found guns, handcuffs, zip-ties, binoculars, a knife and a police radio. The detectives also found a news article about the Newtown shooting.
“This suspect was on his way south with enough weapons in his car to do serious harm to someone,” Arpaio said at a press conference following Simpson’s arrest.
Now although I usually take what Sheriff Joe says with a grain of salt, this time he may be on the level. Simpson appeared in court on Oct. 16 at a pre-trial conference hearing before Maricopa County Superior Court judge Margaret Mahoney. At the hearing, Simpson’s lawyer, Casey Martin, told the judge he has been in talks with the prosecutor about a possible plea deal for his client.
In response, Judge Mahoney ordered both parties to appear at a settlement conference to discuss the matter.
Simpson, who was extradited to Arizona in July, had previously entered a not guilty plea to the charges.
As is well-known, Arias — the unwitting motivation behind Simpson’s alleged actions — was convicted in May of killing her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander. The jury determined she stabbed Alexander nearly 30 times, slit his throat and then shot him in the head at his Arizona home. The Arias jury, however, failed to reach a unanimous decision on whether she should receive life in prison or the death penalty. A second sentencing phase jury is scheduled to commence deliberations this coming September. If this jury fails to reach a verdict, the death penalty is off the table and the judge will sentence Ms. Arias.
* * * * *
At Simpson’s settlement conference, a resolution was not reached which is why it is now preceding to trial.
I don’t have a strong sense of what would be a fair resolution in the David Lee Simpson matter. The threats alone certainly need to be taken seriously, but then, when you toss in Simpson’s “stalking arsenal” complete with the Newtown news article, the profile of a potential psycho-killer begins to emerge. Would 5 years in prison be enough? 1o years? If he was to receive a 5-year term to be served in the Arizona State penitentiary, it would cost the Arizona taxpayers somewhere in the vicinity of $150,000. Would this be a small price to pay to protect the public? It’s a difficult question that doesn’t lend itself to easy answers. A Psychological Evaluation is certainly in order and, I would think, will most likely occur at some point in the proceedings. And if we are to be brutally honest (something we sometimes try to avoid), isn’t obvious that Mr. Simpson’s ultimate sentence should be served in a lock-down state mental facility as opposed to a state penitentiary?