'I have the power to do what I want'

Day-by-day in the trial of Rebecca Simpson

By Brian Knox
Published July 2, 2006

Due to time and space constraints, much of the testimony in the Rebecca Simpson solicitation of capital murder trial was not included in earlier issues of the Wise County Messenger. The following is a daily recap of highlights not previously published.

Monday, June 12

Judge Mike Thomas overrules a pre-trial motion by Rebecca Simpson’s attorney, Ray Bass, to exclude portions of a surveillance video shot from a hidden camera when Simpson met with an undercover officer posing as a hit man. The portions he objected to were in regards to Simpson discussing the possibility of the murder of former friend Clarice Thomas. Simpson and Thomas had fought in a restaurant bathroom a few months prior to the meeting.

A jury was picked that afternoon, consisting of eight women and five men. The thirteenth juror was an alternate.

Tuesday, June 13

Simpson enters a not guilty plea.

In her opening statement, co-prosecutor Kim D’Avignon said Simpson was a woman who “had it all” including an attorney husband and wonderful kids, but “that wasn’t enough for her.” She said Simpson believed she got to decide who lived and who died.

Bass, an attorney from Austin, asked jurors to pay close attention to the time line of events and review the smaller details of the case. “Little things mean a lot,” he said.

Texas Ranger Dewayne Dockery testified about his investigation and told the jury details about setting up a recorded phone call between Simpson and Kevin Cash, the man prosecutors said Simpson approached at the Dry Creek Store in Bridgeport about helping her with a harassment problem she was having.

Under cross examination, Bass questioned Dockery extensively on Cash. When asked if the e-mail name on Cash’s business card – tacticalsociopath – raised any eyebrows, Dockery said it didn’t concern him after he had a chance to meet with Cash.

In what would be the heart of Simpson’s defense, Bass several times questioned Dockery about his lack of documentation regarding Cash and asked why Cash was not followed after he left the meeting between Simpson and the “hit man,” actually an undercover officer, in Southlake.

When asked why Simpson wasn’t arrested after her first meeting with the undercover officer, Sgt. Steve Reynolds, on Oct. 26, Dockery said they wanted to wait until after the second meeting in which Simpson would pay for the hit to take place in order to show her true intent.

Jonna Jameson testified about a fight she witnessed between Simpson and Shemane Watts on Oct. 13, 2004, at The Gym in Bridgeport.

Other witnesses called: a records clerk with Wells Fargo and a records clerk with the Wise County jail.

Wednesday, June 14

The testimony of Kevin Cash took up the entire day, with the majority of the questions coming from Bass’ cross examination.

Cash described his meeting with Simpson at the Dry Creek Store and later at the Costco parking lot in Southlake. He later went to the Bridgeport police with his concerns that Simpson was trying to hire a hit man.

He described his job as a security guard for various functions and said he was dressed in all black clothing with large boots the day he first met Simpson in Bridgeport. Bass asked him why he carried an M4 rifle in the front of his vehicle with him. Cash said he carried the rifle on occasions such as working security at worker strikes. He denied that he carried it to scare people.

When asked about the significance of his unusual e-mail address, Cash said it was simply “a name people could remember.”

Bass questioned Cash about his statements to police almost line by line.

When asked if Simpson seemed “distraught” when she was talking to Cash about the possibility of murdering Shemane Watts, Cash said, in reference to Simpson wanting the murder to look like a “drug deal gone bad,” “When you go through the planning of a drug deal, I wouldn’t call that distraught, I’d call that determined.”

Cash said he was told by officers to give Simpson “reassurance” but not to entrap her.

Thursday, June 15

In a short day of testimony, Bridgeport Lt. Steve Stanford talked about the statements his office received regarding the fight at The Gym. He said Simpson gave her first account the day after the fight, on Oct. 14. She returned a second statement on Oct. 25, then made 11 revisions the following day.

The major changes were as follows: Stanford said Simpson simply denied harassing Shemane Watts in her first statement, but she added that Watts was harassing her in the second statement. Also, the first statement said that Watts kicked at Simpson but did not strike her. In later versions, Simpson said she was kicked in the hand.

Under cross-examination from Bass, Stanford denied Simpson’s claim that she was being followed by officers during this time period.

Friday, June 16

(See the June 18 issue of the Wise County Messenger for a more detailed account.)

The jury watched the two videotapes of Simpson’s meeting Oct. 26 and 28 with Reynolds.

The target of the “hit,” Shemane Watts, also testified. She said her husband would make her call Simpson after the two had argued and make her apologize, an act she described as “humiliating.”

When asked what her life had been like since Simpson’s arrest for solicitation of capital murder, Shemane Watts said, “My life has been turned upside down. I’m scared to leave the house.”

Under cross-examination, Watts admitted that she had once cut her wrists after a fight with her husband. She also admitted that she had made at least one phone call to Simpson before when she was drunk.

Shemane Watts said that Simpson once called her telling her she knew the names, addresses and housing descriptions of her family members. When Watts asked Simpson how she knew this, Watts said Simpson said, “My name is Rebecca Simpson. My husband is Ross Simpson. I have the power to do what I want.”

Danny Watts’ former girlfriend, Jessica Tankursley Murphy, testified about Simpson continuing her relationship with Watts while Murphy and Watts were dating, eventually leading to their break-up.

As testimony was winding to a close, Simpson asked her attorney to question Murphy about a college class they shared. When asked if Simpson ever helped Murphy with her Spanish lessons, Murphy said Simpson once rudely corrected her in front of the entire class.

Monday, June 19

Tony and Brandy Meador, former neighbors of Danny Watts, testified about seeing Simpson outside Watts’ bedroom window as described by Tankursley. They also said Simpson would often drive by the home whenever someone else was there.

Kurt Hill, who began to testify about a brief affair he had with Simpson before Bass objected to the line of questioning, said Simpson once asked him to follow Danny Watts because she was concerned he was cheating on her.

Callie Manning, who is Danny Watts’ sister and also works for Simpson’s husband, Ross Simpson’s law firm, said she once went on a trip to Chicago with her brother and Simpson.

After the state rested its case, Bass called Stanford back to the stand. Bass continued his questioning about Kevin Cash, asking Stanford if Cash had ever told him about several phone calls from Simpson before and after her meeting with Reynolds.

Outside of the jury’s presence, Cash testified that the father of one of his ex-girlfriends once threatened to “put a bullet between my eyes.” Cash could not remember if he was ever told that his ex-girlfriend’s father tried to hire a hit man to kill him. Judge Mike Thomas sustained an objection by prosecutor Christy Jack, and the line of questioning was not admitted for the jury to hear. Bass had argued that it showed Cash “has an obsession of someone trying to kill someone” and he was entitled to show “the imagination of (Cash).”

Bass asked Cash repeatedly about several phone calls he said Simpson made to him expressing her desire to back out. Cash denied that Simpson ever wanted to back out. He said Simpson did express the fear of getting caught.

The day ended with testimony from Danny Watts. He told the jury of his affair with Simpson and denied making inappropriate comments to Simpson’s 16-year-old daughter, Sarah.

Watts also said that Simpson asked him “not to ask about her leukemia,” the first mention of the disease in the trial. When asked by Jack under cross examination if he had ever seen a leukemia diagnosis, he said he had not. (See the Sunday, June 25 issue of the Wise County Messenger for more details of Watts’ testimony.)

Tuesday, June 20

Bass recalled Dockery to the stand and questioned him about phone records, particularly about the lack of detailed phone records for Oct. 21 through 24. Dockery said for those dates, he was only able to obtain the records a customer would get in their regular monthly bill. Bass twice inferred that the prosecution might have the detailed records for those dates and had not shared those with him.

Simpson’s 20-year-old son, Sean, testified about an incident on the Texas Tech campus on Oct. 23. He said he heard several ladies yelling and he grabbed his mom to pull her away.

After lunch, Rebecca Simpson took the stand to begin nearly a day’s worth of testimony. She talked about her affair with Watts, the fight at The Gym and her meetings and discussions with Kevin Cash (see Thursday, June 22 issue of the Wise County Messenger for a more detailed account).

Simpson said she did not trust the Bridgeport police because she suspected that two officers who had memberships at The Gym were tipping off Danny Watts about an undercover narcotics officer who was attempting to buy drugs from Watts.

At her Oct. 20 meeting with Cash, Simpson said Cash described the four levels of neutralizing threats: 1, harassment; 2, terroristic threat; 3, bodily injury; and 4, murder. Simpson said at that point, Cash showed her the trunk of his car, which was filled with guns.

Wednesday, June 21

Simpson continued her testimony through early afternoon. She explained that when she said she wanted to “bump it up to the next level,” she was referring to level 2 of the threat neutralization level. She said it referred to someone shooting bullets which disintegrate upon impact at the Watts’ property. She said Cash told her the “hit man” only operated on the “max level,” and she couldn’t back out of the meeting.

Once when Simpson said she was trying to back out of the “hit,” Cash told her she didn’t want to end up like Bobbie White, a former Bridgeport resident who was dropped off at an Arlington hospital and died a year earlier.

Simpson admitted that she did call Child Protective Services immediately after her fight with Shemane Watts at The Gym. Using the name “Angie Wallings,” a friend of Shemane Watts, Simpson told CPS the Wattses sold drugs, that Shemane Watts had tried to commit suicide and talked about it in front of her children and that Shemane Watts had refused to see a psychiatrist.

Simpson said the reason she corrected the type of car she was driving in her letter to the editor in the Bridgeport Index regarding to the fight at The Gym was simply to point out inconsistencies. “I don’t care about material things,” she said.

Jack several times asked Simpson that if she suspected Danny Watts was making inappropriate comments to her daughter, and if she suspected him of being a pedophile, why did she spend her time changing her statements to police and calling CPS about her concerns about Danny and Shemane Watts’ ability to take care of their children without ever mentioning the pedophilia to authorities.

Simpson said she was the victim of a blackmail scheme involving Clarice Thomas. She said Thomas knew of her affair and pregnancy by Kurt Hill and threatened to tell Ross Simpson about the affair. Simpson said she had a miscarriage.

Simpson’s best friend, Bobbie McKittrick, testified about her relationship with Simpson. She said she heard Simpson tell Cash, “I don’t want to go through with this.” McKittrick said she also called the Wise County Sheriff’s Office regarding Simpson’s claim that Danny Watts was making inappropriate comments to her daughter.

Under cross-examination, McKittrick said Simpson wanted to back out of the “hit” because she was scared she would get caught. McKittrick also said Simpson told her she had burned photos and letters from Danny Watts, items prosecutors said were potential evidence in the case.

Simpson’s former minister, Anglican priest Thomas Logue of Round Rock, briefly testified that Simpson was capable of telling the truth under oath. He admitted that he had no knowledge of the solicitation of capital murder case.

The defense rested their case.

Thursday, June 22

Simpson’s husband, Ross Simpson, testified about their marriage. The two are in the process of divorcing.

He denied Simpson’s claims that he had had three affairs and that he was often away from home. Ross Simpson said he asked his wife around Christmas of 2001 if she was having an affair with Danny Watts, but she denied it.

Under cross-examination, Ross Simpson admitted that he had signed his wife’s name on financial documents before, but he said he always told her about it. When asked if he was aware that signing someone else’s name and having it notarized was a crime, he said, “It’s considerably less than some,” referring to the solicitation of capital murder case.

He also said that his wife received a personal injury settlement of nearly a half-million dollars when the breast implants she received in the early 1990s began to leak. He said she went through all of the money in a few years.

After closing arguments, the jury began deliberations around 4:30. They went home around two hours later.

Friday, June 23

After 45 minutes of deliberations, the jury reached a guilty verdict.

Bass called Rebecca Simpson to the stand to begin the punishment phase of the trial. She promised that if the jury saw fit to give her probation, she would abide by all the conditions.

Simpson’s fiancé, David Tooley of Arlington, testified how he met Simpson last October and became engaged in December. He talked about how his children would be devastated if their future stepmother was sent to prison.

D’Avignon pointed out that it was Tooley who knew about Simpson’s pending legal situation and still chose to introduce his children to her.

Simpson’s mother, Mary Jones of Round Rock, testified mainly about how poor a husband and father Ross Simpson is. She described her daughter as “caring and sweet.”

Simpson’s father, Arlan Jones, and McKittrick also testified on Simpson’s behalf during the punishment phase.

Danny Watts’ former girlfriend, Susan Baker, testified about an incident when she was driving and a vehicle she believed was Rebecca Simpson’s came up behind her with lights flashing and horn honking.

After closing arguments, the jury took about 1 1/2 hours to return a verdict of 25 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.