I am SOOOO over shady people at school. I hate hypocrites. hate them!

I hope they all break their legs and have to walk around with crutches and one of those ridiculous full leg casts that go up to their crouches.

I think I had an anxiety attack for 4 hours straight today. I had no idea what was going on in Med Chem today and I couldn't pay attention for the life of me. Then, during kinetics, I started thinking about how I was really stressed out about this paper for my elective which is due on Monday. Then, I went to my mail box and found this huge packet for kinetics that I have to turn in next Monday for a grade. lately, our homewoek has been one or two pages. This one? 15! 15 freaking pages. Then, I went to lab and worried the entire time about all the crap I had to do. I was suppose to go with Sandra to the KPhA meeting tomorrow because she asked me and i felt obligated to say yes. But, I ended up emailing her and saying that I couldn't go and in much nicer words told her to quit asking me. I HATE having to be put in positions to have to do things like that.

But, in other happier news, Lee made me brownies for my birthday and Inna gave me a box of Russian chocolates. It was very sweet of them.

I ended up going to the library after lab instead of going to workout because I was so anxious and I was able to write three more pages on my paper. I got done in time to go workout, but my head hurt because I hadn't eated my lunch yet. I ate it after I got done working out.

Jeremy got me a 10 pound weight and an exercise mat and Rebekah from school got me two workout DVD's so I was able to workout this weekend when I wasn't busy studying.

We went out to dinner with Chris and Lissa on Friday and watched a movie. Then, I got up and worked on stuff from 8 until 2 when Katie and Geralyn got into town. We went out to Pazzo and Tolly Ho's. Then, the next day, I got up at 8 again and studied and worked until 6:15 non-stop except to do a 30 min workout and take a shower. It was super exhausting to work that much. Then Chris and Lissa gave over with homemade veggie lasagna that was very good.

It seems like all I ever do is study and sleep and yet I am always tired and forever behind. I can't wait until spring break is here so I can get catched up.

Happy Birthday, Virginia. Hope you have a great day. Jeremy, hug her for me.

i am so ready for bed it is not even funny. my eyes are drooping as i type.

I have so much to do and so little time.

Whoever came up with APA format needs to rot in hell

sigh

All done! I got caught up on Lost and American Idol. I'm not very impressed with the girls for this season. I really like that large guy with the curly hair. he is really funny.

It is snowing alot here in Lexington. There are a few inches on the ground right now.

Published: February 16, 2007 11:58 pm print this story email this story comment on this story

Simpson now faces child porn charges
By KENNETH HART
The Independent

CATLETTSBURG — One day after being convicted of murder and sentenced to life plus five years, Timothy Scott Simpson was back in court on a separate charge that could result in him receiving additional prison time.

Through his attorney, Michael Curtis, Simpson pleaded not guilty to one count of possession of material involving the depiction of a minor in a sexually explicit act.

The charge stems from a video clip found on Simpson’s home computer, which was seized as part of the investigation of the Feb. 16, 2006, shooting death of 28-year-old Faith Clay, Simpson’s live-in girlfriend.

Authorities said the computer’s hard drive had been wiped, but that a computer forensics expert was still able to locate the clip.

The contents of the clip have not been divulged, but Commonwealth’s Attorney David Justice said it was “explicit” and had the word “minor” in the file name.

A Boyd Circuit Court jury on Thursday found Simpson guilty of Clay’s murder and sentenced him to life in prison, the maximum term allowed by law. Jurors also convicted Simpson of tampering with evidence and gave him five years on that charge, to run consecutively with his murder sentence.

Simpson shot Clay in the eye with a 9 mm handgun fitted with a silencer fashioned from a two-liter soft drink bottle while she was asleep in his garage apartment on Boyd Street. In convicting him of murder, jurors rejected his claim that Clay took her own life.

Simpson was indicted last month on the child-pornography charge, a Class D felony that carries a prison sentence of one to five years.

Justice said he made Simpson a “very generous” plea bargain offer on the charge. While declining to discuss specifics, he said, as a “practical matter,” the deal would result in Simpson serving no additional time.

Under state sentencing guidelines, Simpson will be eligible to meet with the parole board for the first time after he has spent 20 years behind bars.

The plea offer has an expiration date of March 1, Justice said, adding he was prepared to try the case should Simpson decide not to accept it.

Judge C. David Hagerman scheduled the case for trial on May 22.

blah.

my head really hurts. I have two more tests today and then I will be done with my first set of blocks. So far, they haven't been that bad. It's been a little distracting with the trial going on, but other than that it has been ok. I should get done with my test at 1:15. Kelly wanted to go workout after it and Joy wanted to go to get lunch, but I think I may bail on both of them and just come home to sleep. I have been up since 2 this morning studying. I went to bed at 7:30 last night but apparently it didn't matter. My head is killing me like I've been up for 24 hours straight.

I think Jeremy is suppose to go visit is Aunt and Uncle today. I don't know if he will or not. I told him before I went to bed that he needed to call them tonight to make sure they were free, but I don't know if he did or not.

does anyone's hands swell at night?

photos

Published: February 15, 2007 09:13 pm

Clay’s mother stung by loss of daughter; Linda Simpson maintains son’s innocence

Click to view a slideshow of Thursday's proceedings, created by John Flavell

By BEN FIELDS — The Independent

Catlettsburg — Technically, Sally Fields won the day.

After having to hear endless testimony about her daughter’s drug problems, financial woes and depression, the man accused of killing her was convicted of murder, and sentenced to life in prison.

But Fields, the mother of 28-year-old Faith Clay, who was shot in the eye and killed on Feb. 16 of last year, said the victory is tinged with bitterness, as the loss of her oldest child has left a void in her life that cannot be filled, regardless of the conviction of Timothy Scott Simpson.

“Unless you’ve lost a child, you can’t really understand the impact,” Fields said.

Simpson, 24, of Ashland, shot Clay with a 9 mm pistol that had a two-liter bottle duct-taped to it as a homemade silencer.

The two had been living together for about three weeks when the shooting occurred. A state medical examiner said Clay died nearly instantly from the bullet that went through her brain from beneath the right eye and exited the left side of the back of her skull.

Clay had a high level of Xanax and methadone in her system at the time of the shooting, and had previously lost custody of her three children because of her repeated drug use.

Simpson’s defense attorney, Michael Curtis, attempted to portray Clay as someone who was suffering from deep depression, and ultimately committed suicide.

“This is her at Christmas,” said Fields, holding up a picture of her daughter, who is smiling in the photograph. “Does she look down and out?”

Simpson was given life in prison, plus five years for tampering with physical evidence.

Though she can’t get her child back, Fields said she did feel her daughter was vindicated by the verdict.

She also thanked Commonwealth’s Attorney David Justice and assistant Scott Reese for their prosecution of the case.

“Mr. Justice and Mr. Reese and their whole staff were wonderful,” she said. “Faith did things I didn’t approve of, but she was my daughter, and I’m just very pleased with the verdict.”

Meawhile, Simpson’s mother, Linda, was going through her own pain, knowing her son will spend at least 20 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole.

After the verdict was read, the woman broke down in tears.

During her testimony the day before, Linda Simpson admitted she put the gun used in the shooting in a chair after her son picked it up. Regardless of how the scene might have looked to investigators, she said she firmly believed Clay committed suicide, saying the woman was depressed and often spoke of ending her own life.

She maintained that belief after the trial ended Thursday.

“I’m his mother,” she said. “I know he’s innocent.”

Fields said she knows her daughter wasn’t innocent in everything she did, but wishes Clay would have had the chance to change her life.

“I know Faith had problems, but I also know my girl was still in there somewhere, and she was going to turn things around,” she said. “But she never got that chance, because (Simpson) purposely put a gun to her head while she was asleep and killed her.

“(Simpson) is still living, but we’ll never get to see Faith again.”

Published: February 15, 2007 09:12 pm

Simpson guilty

Click to view a slideshow of Thursday's proceedings, created by John Flavell

By BEN FIELDS — The Independent

Catlettsburg — A day short of the anniversary of her death, Faith Clay’s killer was convicted of murder.

After a nine-day trial, a Boyd County Circuit Court jury found Timothy Scott Simpson, 24, of Ashland, guilty of murder and tampering with physical evidence, while doling out the stiffest possible penalty for the crimes.

Simpson was given life in prison for the murder, and a consecutive sentence of five years for the tampering charge — also the maximum.

Clay’s family hugged prosecutors, police and investigators as the verdict was read at about 3 p.m. Thursday. Simpson’s mother and other family members broke down in tears.

Simpson himself showed little reaction.

The case was handed over to the jury at about 11:30 a.m.

The group replayed the initial 911 call made by Simpson’s mother, Linda, and reviewed two videotaped interviews Ashland police conducted with Simpson on Feb. 16 and 17 of last year before returning their decision.

The prosecution claimed Simpson fired a 9 mm pistol modified with a silencer built from a two-liter Mountain Dew bottle duct-taped to the gun at Clay while she was unconscious on a couch in his Boyd Street garage apartment.

Defense attorney Michael Curtis argued the woman took her own life.

Alternate juror Mike Baldridge said he would have pushed for a guilty verdict if he had not been eliminated by the luck of the draw just before deliberation.

“I commend (Curtis), because he presented a compelling defense, but the state offered evidence that couldn’t be ignored,” Baldridge said. “It became more and more obvious to me what happened as the trial progressed, especially after witnessing the videotaped statements.”

In the first interview, Simpson doesn’t mention anything about the homemade silencer, and appeared fairly calm, saying he was in another room listening to music when he heard the shot that ended Clay’s life.

In the second interview, conducted a day after the shooting, police confronted Simpson with the evidence of the bottles, and the man seemed to panic, telling authorities that he disposed of evidence and altered the crime scene because he feared he would be blamed.

Baldridge said there were too many discrepancies in Simpson’s story.

“It just didn’t add up,” he said.

Commonwealth’s Attorney David Justice and assistant Scott Reese presented evidence that Clay was likely unconscious, or at least heavily impaired, at the time of the shooting because of the amount of methadone and Xanax in her system, and argued she couldn’t have operated a firearm. Medical experts also testified that a suicide by gunshot to the eye is extremely rare, and could have been rendered physically impossible because of the bottle attached to the gun.

Simpson and his mother both admitted to moving the gun and throwing two-liter bottles in the trash before the police arrived at the scene.

“The second interview was probably what hurt our case the most,” Curtis said after the trial had ended. “His demeanor was completely different, and there’s no question it was damaging.”

This was the first trial for Justice and Reese as prosecutors, and Reese said it’s not going to be something he forgets anytime soon.

“I feel like what we did was important,” said the assistant, who handled a large portion of the commonwealth’s case, including a complicated chain of evidence involving more than 50 exhibits.

“I feel like Faith’s family had a voice and has been vindicated,” Reese added.

Justice said the end result was “bittersweet.”

“It is a victory for the state of Kentucky,” he said. “But it takes a little bit out of you, dealing closely with someone’s death like this.”

Justice gave most of the credit to the Ashland Police Department, giving special recognition to Sgt. Mike Crawford, the lead investigator in the case.

“Crawford did a wonderful job; he was the heart and soul of this case,” he said.

Justice argued for the maximum sentence, and said he was pleased with the jury’s decision.

“They did what they thought was right, and I think their decision speaks volumes,” he said.

Simpson’s case will automatically be appealed to the state Supreme Court, because it involves a sentence of more than 20 years.

Circuit Judge C. David Hagerman set Simpson’s final sentencing for March 16.

The man will also be arraigned this morning on a child pornography charge, stemming from files found on his computer during the homicide investigation.

Guilty. The jury also recommended a life sentence.

Published: February 14, 2007 09:06 pm

Mom: ‘My son didn’t do it’

By BEN FIELDS — The Independent

CATLETTSBURG — The mother of a man on trial for murder says her son didn’t do it.

Linda Simpson, the mother of 24-year-old Timothy Scott Simpson, took the stand Wednesday in her son’s defense.

Linda Simpson was the one who called 911 on the morning of Feb. 16, 2006, when Faith Clay was found dead in Timothy Simpson’s apartment.

In the frantic call, she claims “My son’s girlfriend had a gun and shot herself.”

Wednesday, Linda Simpson maintained her belief that the death was a suicide, saying Clay, 28, was frequently depressed and often made statements that she didn’t see the point in continuing to live.

Police and prosecutors, on the other hand, believe Simpson shot Clay with his 9 mm pistol, which was modified with a homemade silencer, consisting of a two-liter Mountain Dew bottle duct-taped to the weapon.

Clay was shot in the right eye, and the bullet went through her brain and exited the left side of the back of her skull, killing her more or less immediately, according to testimony from medical experts.

Those same experts have also testified for the prosecution that Clay couldn’t have manipulated a firearm fitted with a two-liter bottle because of the high amounts of methadone and Xanax in her system at the time. They also said suicides by gunshot to the eye are extremely rare.

But Linda Simpson said Wednesday “I know my son didn’t do it.”

She said Clay, whom she had known for about a month before the shooting, frequently talked about her sadness over having her children taken away because of her drug problem, and said Clay didn’t see the use of pulling her life together.

“One day she’d say she wanted to get off the drugs, and the next she’d say there wasn’t any use,” Linda Simpson said. “About a week prior to her death, she told me she had no purpose, no reason for going on, and she wished she could just die.”

She said she believed Clay was a “lonely and disturbed person.

“She said there was no joy in living,” Linda Simpson said. “She said she was ugly and couldn’t hold a job.”

Linda Simpson said she twice took Clay to a methadone clinic in Huntington for treatment, and also paid for eye medication for Clay’s infected right eye.

At one point, Linda Simpson broke down in tears, saying she blamed herself for Clay’s death, because she had told Clay she needed to move out from her son’s garage apartment, adjacent to her own house, the day before the shooting.

“I had told her to leave, and she had no place to go,” she said.

Linda Simpson admitted to moving the gun along with her son when they found the body, but, upon cross-examination, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Scott Reese revealed that her testimony of what happened at the scene was inconsistent with her own statement taken the day of the shooting, and the statement her son gave to police.

The mother testified Wednesday that Timothy Simpson picked up the gun from the floor, and she told him not to touch it, took it from him by the barrel and placed it in a nearby chair.

In her statement the day of the incident, Linda Simpson claimed she picked the gun up by the barrel with a tissue and put it in the chair. Timothy Simpson told police in a videotaped statement he had already removed the gun from the scene, and his mother asked him where it was, and he retrieved it, saying he put in the chair because that’s where his mother wanted him to put it.

Linda Simpson blamed this and other inconsistencies — like the part of her statement saying her son woke her up at 4 a.m., a full hour before the police were called — on the fact that she was distraught and upset the day of the shooting.

She also said that her son’s statement to police that he pounded on her door anywhere from 90 to 15 minutes before she answered was also untrue.

In cross-examination, Reese focused on Clay buying new clothes and makeup and packing the night before the shooting, and also pointed out that Clay had given Linda Simpson a card thanking her for all of her help and support that day, as evidence that the woman was getting ready to move, not kill herself.

The defense called other witnesses to attest to Clay making statements about committing suicide.

One, Bessie Daniels, of Ashland, said she and Clay were “lifelong friends,” and said Clay was always depressed and often talked of suicide, even attempting it once sometime around 1999 or 2000.

However, on cross examination, Daniels couldn’t come up with Clay’s last name, didn’t know if the police were ever called in the alleged suicide attempt and gave the wrong number of children the woman had at that period in time.

A friend of the Simpson family, Judy Anderson, testified she was at Simpson’s apartment frequently in the months leading up to Clay’s death, because she was using his computer.

She said Clay told her “If I had a gun I would blow my brains out,” and said the woman mentioned suicide on several occasions, adding that she tried to distance herself from the conversations with Clay.

She also claimed to be at Timothy Simpson’s apartment the night before the shooting, staying until midnight, but Timothy Simpson said in his video statement that he and Clay were alone at the apartment that night.

Closing arguments are scheduled for this morning.

If convicted of murder, Timothy Simpson faces 20 years to life in prison. He is also facing a charge of tampering with evidence, which carries a maximum sentence of five years.

Published: February 13, 2007 11:06 pm

Simpson admits to removing evidence

Prosecution rests in murder trial

By BEN FIELDS
The Independent

CATLETTSBURG — Timothy Scott Simpson’s demeanor was decidedly different on Feb. 17, 2006, than it was the day before.

In the sixth full day of Simpson’s murder trial in the death of Faith Clay, prosecutors played two video interviews with Simpson, one taken the day of Clay’s shooting, and one the day after.

In the first video, Simpson appears calm, talking with police three hours after he supposedly found Clay dead in his apartment from a gunshot wound to the head.

The incident was reported as a suicide, and Simpson is seen talking calmly with police about how Clay “was the type of person who would get mad about anything.

“She was always griping and complaining, you know what I’m saying?” he said to then Ashland Police Det. Mike Crawford, who is now a field commander with the department.

In the video, Simpson said Clay was cleaning the garage apartment on the 4800 block of Boyd Street the two shared when she found his 9 mm pistol under the couch.

“That’s how she got it,” he said. “She had the gun, and then she passed out, and the gun fell on the floor.”

Simpson claimed Clay was using methadone at the time, and a medical examiner testified last week that Clay had lethally high amounts of the synthetic opiate in her system when she was shot.

In the video, Simpson said he was on his computer, listening to music, when he heard a shot from the other room, and found 28-year-old Clay sprawled on his couch.

He said he tried to assist Clay, then got his mother at the adjacent house, who called 911.

But that statement was given before police found out Clay was shot with a pistol that had been suppressed with a makeshift silencer consisting of a two-liter Mountain Dew bottle duct-taped to the gun.

When, in the second interview, Crawford accused Simpson of killing Clay, he appeared rattled.

“The only thing you have is the way the gun was pointed, where it came from and how the (plastic shrapnel) got into her, where it came from, and how she was so out of it from Xanax and methadone that she couldn’t have done it or pulled the trigger; pulled the safety off,” an agitated Simpson said in the video.

“Like I said, you don’t know what I know,” Crawford replied.

Simpson gave conflicting reports of who handled the gun after the shooting, telling Crawford during one interview that he had moved it, and then his mother had handled it, and then in the second saying only his mother had touched the weapon.

Police believe either Simpson or his mother cleaned the gun, because it was removed from a pool of blood on the floor.

Simpson did admit to having Mountain Dew bottles removed before police arrived, and throwing shell casings from his pistol in the garbage.

He claimed he did this because he was worried the police would suspect him.

“I seen the bottle and I said ‘They are going to try and get me,’” he said in the video interview. “I seen the gun, I said ‘They are going to get me for the gun.’

“I picked the gun up. I said f— it. I said f— everything.”

Throughout the videotaped interviews, Simpson maintained that he never shot Clay, despite Crawford’s repeated statements the evidence supported that theory.

In the end of the second video, Simpson began attacking Clay’s character, saying she slept with men for money and “brought two gay guys to my house once.”

Defense attorney Michael Curtis continued to attempt to undermine the credibility of the investigation, cross-examining Crawford for an extended period of time.

Most of the cross-examination focused on the fact Crawford apparently told a grand jury the gun could possibly fit under the couch with the two-liter bottle attached to it. In the second video interview with Simpson and during his direct testimony at the trial, Crawford said he didn’t think the gun would fit.

The prosecution rested Tuesday afternoon.

Simpson faces 20 years to life in prison if convicted of Clay’s murder. He also faces up to five years in prison for tampering with physical evidence.

Curtis is expected to call witnesses for the defense this morning.

Published: February 13, 2007 11:05 pm

Mother: Clay called days before her death

By BEN FIELDS
The Independent

CATLETTSBURG — The last time Sally Fields heard from her daughter, the woman was upbeat, and making plans to take her children to the movies.

Faith Clay, 28, of Flatwoods, would be found dead from a gunshot wound to her right eye in an Ashland apartment on Boyd Street just a few days after that phone call.

Timothy Scott Simpson, 24, who lived with Clay in the apartment, is on trial for her murder. His defense attorney, Michael Curtis, has put forth Clay was depressed and taking heavy drugs, and shot herself.

Monday, various counselors and psychiatrists who treated Clay said she was never suicidal, despite her ongoing substance abuse. An expert in forensic psychiatry also testified he had never heard of anyone shooting themselves in the eye with a gun that had a two-liter Mountain Dew bottle attached as a silencer, as was the case in Clay’s death.

Fields added to that Tuesday, saying her daughter wouldn’t have committed suicide, and said Clay “wasn’t down” when the two talked for the final time.

“She wanted to take (her daughter) Zoe to the movies, and she said with her little laugh ‘You know, Mom, I don’t have any money,’” Fields said. “And I told her I knew that, and she should just pick out a movie and we would go.”

Fields, who served as the prosecution’s final witness in the case, said her daughter was always welcome in her home, but that “the drugs were not.”

“She knew that,” Fields said. “But I was always there for her. Her father was always there.”

Fields said Clay had numerous supervised visits with her two children — which had been taken away by social services because of Clay’s repeated positive drug tests — and said her daughter always talked about getting her girls back.

She also said Clay wasn’t planning to stay with Simpson in Ashland long, and was talking about moving to Huntington and going back to school.

“She wanted to get her act together,” Fields said.

The mother admitted Clay’s drug use caused a rift between the two.

“I told her ‘I don’t like a lot of the things you do, but I know my little girl is still in there somewhere."

Well, I didn't get to see mom testify yesterday, but I talked to her today. She said it went really well. It was tough sitting through all of the proceedings yesterday, and it would have been tougher to do it a second day. The defendant's lawyer represents the bane of his profession. It takes a certain kind person to make a living out of defending people like that, and I will never want to associate myself with that type of person. There were a few times I felt like jumping the rail and choking that stupid lawyer. He's the type of lawyer who's interest in the truth only extends to finding ways to twist the truth around to his favor. Apparently I made the lawyer and his defendant uncomfortable or something yesteday because the lawyer complained about me to the judge. I can't imagine what I could have done. I stayed completely on the proscecution's side of the courtroom and did not make any threatening gestures that I now of. I feel certain the bailiff would have quickly informed me of any misconduct. The only thing I can figure is I made eye contact with them briefly, and I can guarantee you I wasn't smiling.

here's the link to the trial

Hi There
Who is that beautiful, brown-eyed, brown-hair, bold, ballsy, bountiful, brillant, bonny, brave, brainy, bouncy, busy Birthday Becky?

Dixie Chicks won the grammy for best album of the year. I am very happy for them. I would like to see them in concert one day, just not with the other thousands of people who also want to see them in concert.

my life is boring, isn't it?

it is way past my bedtime.

Jeremy is going to Ashland on Monday. his mom is going to testify on the stand. I think he is really worried about it. the defense lawyer is really sleazy and he doesn't want his mom to cry.

i have blocks started on thursday.

Published: February 08, 2007 11:28 pm

Examiner had problems with suicide theory

By BEN FIELDS — The Independent

Catlettsburg — When a state medical examiner wrote that the manner of 28-year-old Faith Clay’s death in February of last year was “undetermined,” it wasn’t because the doctor didn’t believe it was a homicide.

In fact, it was the opposite.

“The body came to me as a suicide, but the wounds made it difficult to diagnose that way,” said Dr. Kristin Roth, who performed an autopsy on Clay. “I suggested undetermined because I wasn’t comfortable calling it a suicide.”

Roth spent her second day on the witness stand Thursday morning in the trial of Timothy Scott Simpson, who is accused of murdering clay with a single gunshot from a 9 mm pistol.

Simpson’s defense attorney, Michael Curtis, has argued that Clay was depressed, had made comments about suicide and was on a number of drugs before she was found dead on Simpson’s couch in his Ashland garage apartment on Feb. 16 of last year.

The part about the drugs, at least, seems to be correct.

However, according to testimony from Roth, Clay had so much methadone and Xanax in her system at the time of her death, it is questionable whether she would even have been able to operate a firearm.

“Anything you need a high level of coordination for would be difficult to near impossible, all depending on your tolerance levels,” Roth said under cross examination from Curtis Thursday morning.

It was Simpson’s mother, Linda, who originally called 911 after Clay was shot, telling police that her son’s girlfriend had committed suicide. She also told police that her son had moved the gun.

Roth testified she was uncomfortable calling the death a suicide for a few reasons, one being the lack of any powder burns on her skin, but also because the bullet wound was in Clay’s right eye, exiting through the back of the skull.

“Suicide by gunshot to the eye is extremely rare,” Roth said. “It can happen, but it is much more common to see a gunshot to the temple or through the mouth in a suicide.”

Authorities allege Simpson shot Clay with his pistol, which was modified with a makeshift silencer consisting of a two-liter Mountain Dew bottle duct-taped to the gun.

Wednesday, Roth testified that green plastic shards and a white plastic ring from the bottle were found on Clay’s body. Police also found green plastic and duct tape in Simpson’s apartment.

A forensics examiner Thursday testified that DNA from blood found on the duct tape matched Clay’s, as did blood found on Simpson’s pants. A partial DNA match to Clay was found in blood on Simpson’s right shoe.

Curtis said he wasn’t troubled by the DNA links to his client.

“(Simpson) has already admitted he had contact with the body,” the attorney said after court had recessed for the day Thursday.

In his opening, Curtis said Simpson was in another room when he heard the gunshot, and rushed to Clay to try and help her.

“The first thing he did was lift up her head and put a towel under it,” Curtis said.

Simpson faces 20 years to life in prison if convicted of Clay’s murder. He also faces a charge of tampering with physical evidence which carries a maximum sentence of five years.

The trial is expected to last through Wednesday.

Published: February 08, 2007 11:27 pm

Simpson confessed, fellow inmate says

By BEN FIELDS — The Independent

Catlettsburg — An inmate at the Boyd County Detention Center testified that a man on trial for murder admitted to committing the crime last year.

Timothy Scott Simpson, 24, of Ashland, is accused of killing 28-year-old Faith Clay, who was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head on Simpson’s couch in his apartment early last year.

Authorities allege Simpson fired a 9 mm pistol modified with a homemade silencer at Clay. Autopsy reports showed Clay died from a gunshot to the head, with the bullet entering her right eye and exiting the back of her skull.

William Eastham, who has been convicted of multiple felonies and pleaded guilty in December to a robbery charge, said on the witness stand Thursday that he and Simpson had been in the same area of the county jail for a time, and that Simpson bragged of killing Clay.

“He stated to me on several occasions that he did shoot (Clay) and kill her,” said Eastham, reading from a letter he had written in November to then-Commonwealth’s Attorney J. Stewart Schneider.

“He said (Clay) had an eye infection in her right eye and it wouldn’t clear up, so he cleared it up for her.”

Police did seize medicine in Clay’s name from Simpson’s apartment prescribed to treat an eye infection.

Current Commonwealth’s Attorney David Justice said there was no way Eastham could have known about Clay’s eye infection unless he had heard it from Simpson.

Eastham also wrote that Simpson talked about how he made the silencer, fastening a Mountain Dew bottle to his pistol with duct tape.

“He said it had to be a two-liter bottle, because he tried it with a 20 oz. bottle, and it would just blow off.”

Green plastic shards were found around Simpson’s apartment and on Clay’s body. Duct-tape with Clay’s blood on it was also found.

Although Eastham did write in the letter that he was offering the information in exchange for “mercy” on his own behalf, he testified that Schneider never contacted him about the letter, and he had never met or spoken with Justice until Thursday afternoon on the witness stand.

Simpson’s defense attorney, Michael Curtis, tried to undermine Eastham’s credibility, bringing up his numerous felony convictions and alleging that Eastham was trying to get even with an Ashland police officer who arrested him, because that officer happened to be Simpson’s cousin.

Eastham denied the accusation.

Curtis also refused to believe that Eastham was getting nothing in exchange for his testimony, pointing out that the man’s sentencing wasn’t until Feb. 23.

“The mercy is going to occur on that day, right?” Curtis asked.

“I have no idea,” replied Eastham.

Simpson faces a charge of murder and one count of tampering with physical evidence in Clay’s death.

Published: February 07, 2007 11:01 pm

Clay had lethal doses of drugs in system, expert says

By BEN FIELDS — The Independent

Catlettsburg — A Flatwoods woman who died of a gunshot wound last year in an Ashland apartment already had enough drugs in her system to kill a normal person, a medical expert testified Wednesday.

But 28-year-old Faith Clay was still alive up until the point that a 9 mm bullet struck her below her right eye and exited the back of her skull, said Dr. Kristin Roth, of the state Medical Examiner’s Office in Frankfort.

Roth took the stand late Wednesday afternoon in the trial of Ashlander Timothy Scott Simpson, 24, who is accused of murder and tampering with physical evidence.

She said Clay had .75 milligrams of methadone per liter of blood in her body at the time of her death, as well as .25 milligrams of Xanax per liter.

Methadone is a synthetic opiate sometimes used as a painkiller or to wean addicts off of drugs such as heroin, Lortab and OxyContin. Xanax is an anti-anxiety drug.

In large enough doses, the drugs — methadone in particular — can be fatal.

“The level found in Faith Clay was quite high,” Roth said. “It would have been lethal in someone who hadn’t taken it before.”

But it was a gunshot, and not a drug overdose, that killed Clay, Roth said.

She said when the bullet entered Clay’s brain, the organ hemorrhaged, meaning blood was still flowing through her body. Clay likely only survived for a few minutes at best after the shooting, Roth said.

Roth said Clay’s tolerance might have been high enough to take the levels of the drugs in her system, but added the woman likely would have experienced at least some impairment both in motor skills and mental function at the time.

The evidence seems to beg the question whether Clay would have been functional enough to pick up a firearm and shoot herself, as the defense is claiming she did.

But, when questioned by Commonwealth’s Attorney David Justice on that point, Roth said she couldn’t say how impaired Clay was at the time of the shooting, because there is no way to gauge Clay’s tolerance level for the drugs.

Roth did testify that there was no evidence of powder burns or residue on Clay’s face, meaning the gun was several inches to at least a few feet away from her when fired.

There were green plastic shards found on her body, along with small wounds inflicted by the exploding plastic, supporting the theory that the gun was fired with a homemade silencer comprised of a two-liter Mountain Dew bottle duct-taped to the gun.

Roth was still under direct examination from Justice when court was recessed for the day.

She will take the stand this morning to finish direct and undergo cross-examination from defense attorney Michael Curtis.

Published: February 07, 2007 11:00 pm

Cop: Crime scene was altered

By BEN FIELDS — The Independent

CATLETTSBURG — It began with a frantic call for help.

“My son’s girlfriend had a gun and she shot herself,” Linda Simpson said between sharp breaths. “Oh, Jesus Christ.”

The woman called 911 in the early morning hours of Feb. 16, 2006, to report what appeared to be a suicide in her son’s garage apartment.

Now, a year later, Timothy Scott Simpson is on trial for the murder of 28-year-old Faith Clay of Flatwoods, who was found dead from a gunshot wound on the man’s couch.

Prosecutors played a recording Wednesday morning of the 911 call, which portrayed a breathless and clearly panicked Linda Simpson reporting the incident at the apartment adjacent to her house.

When a dispatcher asked her what had happened to the gun, Linda Simpson replied, “I think my son had it.

“He got scared and he moved it,” she said on the tape.

Statements such as that had police wondering if they were looking at a suicide or a murder.

In the second day of Timothy Simpson’s trial, former Ashland Police Sgt. Forest DeLong testified that something didn’t seem right when he got to the scene of the shooting.

DeLong, now retired, was the first officer to respond to the dispatch that went out at about 5:04 a.m. on Feb. 16 of last year.

He said he met Linda and Timothy Simpson at the bottom of the staircase that led up to the garage apartment.

“(Timothy) was relatively calm,” DeLong said. “The mother was clearly very upset.”

Faith Clay’s body was found sprawled out on a couch, and the gun apparently used to shoot her was lying in a chair several feet away. Clay, who was already dead from a gunshot to her right eye, had a towel placed over her face, DeLong said.

The former officer said he didn’t ask why Timothy Simpson had covered Clay’s face, but admitted it seemed strange.

“I was bothered by the fact that the death scene had been disturbed,” DeLong said. “I thought it was suspicious, and I relayed those thoughts to my lieutenant.”

That was the last involvement DeLong had with the investigation into Clay’s death, but eight months after it happened a Boyd County grand jury indicted Timothy Simpson on one count of murder and one count of tampering with physical evidence.

Authorities believe Timothy Simpson shot Clay with the pistol and a homemade silencer comprised of a two-liter Mountain Dew bottle duct-taped to the weapon.

APD Detective Rob Brunty testified Wednesday that shards of green plastic, parts of a white plastic ring from a bottle top and duct tape were found in Timothy Simpson’s apartment.

A forensics expert from the state Medical Examiner’s Office also testified that green plastic shards were found on Clay’s body during the autopsy, and caused shrapnel-type wounds around her eye where the bullet entered.

Defense attorney Michael Curtis said in his opening statement that Clay was depressed, addicted to drugs and had made statements about killing herself in the days before her death.

On Wednesday, Curtis tried to discredit investigators on cross-examination, saying they didn’t properly document handling of evidence and other crucial aspects of the case.

Curtis has also stated he intends to prove it was possible for Clay to shoot herself in the eye, despite the fact that the gun’s length had been increased by the makeshift silencer.

The trial will continue this morning with more testimony from the forensics expert.

Published: February 06, 2007 08:54 pm

Murder vs. Suicide

Attorneys make cases in opening of Simpson trial

By BEN FIELDS - The INDEPENDENT

CATLETTSBURG — Faith Clay was asleep on a couch when Timothy Scott Simpson leveled a 9 mm pistol fitted with a homemade silencer at her right eye and pulled the trigger, according to the team prosecuting Simpson for murder in Boyd Circuit Court.

But the defense claims Clay, 28, of Flatwoods, was a habitual drug user with a history of mental problems who had made several statements about wanting to kill herself before she was found dead in an Ashland garage apartment on Feb. 16, 2006.

Simpson, 24, who lived in the apartment on the 4800 block of Boyd Street, adjacent to his mother’s house, was indicted on one count of murder and one count of tampering with evidence in October, eight months after Clay’s death.

Court officials spent most of the trial’s first day seating a jury, but Commonwealth’s Attorney David Justice and defense attorney Michael Curtis got their opening arguments in before Judge C. David Hagerman dismissed court for the day.

Justice said Clay was killed instantly when a bullet passed through Clay’s right eye and exited the back of her head while she was laying on Simpson’s couch.

Justice said green plastic shards were found at the entry point of the wound, and Simpson admitted to police that he fashioned a silencer by duct-taping a two-liter Mountain Dew bottle to the end of the gun.

The prosecutor, who is in his first trial as commonwealth’s attorney, said evidence will show Simpson cleaned the gun, threw away incriminating clothing and waited an hour before calling police after the shooting.

He added he believes evidence will show that the gun couldn’t have been located under a couch where Clay could reach it, as Simpson claims, because of the bottle attached to it.

Justice didn’t deny that Clay was a heavy drug user. In fact, he is relying on that in part as proof of Simpson’s guilt, saying Clay couldn’t have killed herself because she was unconscious from a combination of methadone and Xanax when the shooting occurred.

Simpson’s story, according to Justice, is that he was at his computer in another room when he heard a gunshot.

However, Justice added Simpson’s story changed over the course of two interviews, and that he admitted to police that he destroyed evidence because it indicated he was the shooter.

Also, Justice said, Simpson admitted to police that he would shoot his pistol in the apartment and punch holes in the wall when he got angry.

Justice said Simpson’s motive was that Clay, who was in a relationship with Simpson and had been living with him for three weeks, had decided to leave him.

“I will prove to you that on Feb. 16 ... that man right there intentionally, and in cold blood, murdered Faith Clay,” he said. “She was leaving him, and he knew it, and he was so jealous he killed her.”

Curtis said his evidence paints a different picture: That of a longtime drug addict with severe emotional problems who wanted to end her own life.

He said Clay had been in and out of various treatment programs since 1997, and had abused opiates, Xanax and cocaine over the years.

He said psychiatric notes indicated that Clay would never recover because of a high level of denial.

“She was living like a homeless person,” Curtis said. “She had cocaine and methadone in her system when her third child was born in April 2005.”

Clay had lost custody of her three children, though she was still allowed to see them under supervision, and Curtis claims it was the loss of custody that put Clay over the edge.

“She started using more drugs, and started saying things like ‘If I had a gun, I would kill myself,’” Curtis said. “Well, she found a gun on Feb. 16.”

Curtis also claimed evidence will show that it would have been possible for Clay to put the gun to her head and pull the trigger, even with the extended length added by the two-liter bottle.

If convicted of murder, Simpson faces 20 years to life in prison. Tampering with physical evidence carries a maximum sentence of five years.

The prosecution is expected to call its first witness this morning. The trial is expected to last about five days.

What a day! The garage door wouldn't close and it took me 3 attempts IN THE COLD to woman-handle it down. Then I got to school (work) and the car door refused to open. I didn't follow my first impulse and scream. I sat a few minutes thinking that when someone else comes, I'll get them to try from the outside. Then it dawned on me to roll the window down and try the outside latch myself. AND IT WORKED. I went into school where people teased me about being so bundled up. I asked if they were cold and when they said yes, I replied that I wasn't. So who is the silly one? The one freezing or the one warm?
I wasn't even cold walking Missy. She's got a "friend" dog that comes over to see her when we go out in the afternoon. I feel sorry for that dog. It looks like just a puppy. It sits on the porch on the house across the street next to Sandy's almost all the time.

I hate feeling overwhelmed.

I hate that Fayette County was in school today. How stupid was that?

I tried to give blood donate but I was rejected because my iron was too low. Which is totally weird because I've been really good about taking my vitamin and eating healthier.

Did you know that Meijer doesn't have flaxseed oil?

When i got home, I shoved the driveway. it looks nice now while everyone else on the street looks like crap.

two more weekends until blocks. I should really start to study.

I think we accidently lied on our taxes. we just got something in the mail today that we were suppose to put on them. luckily, it was in the IRS's favor, so I'm sure they aren't going to come after us because we didn't ask back 5 or 6 dollars. Anyways, we should be getting our tax refund in less than a week.

started

7 days late. now, wouldn't I have been a hypocrite?

I wish the Medical Library was in my backyard.