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.