By KENNETH HART — The Independent
Ashland — A convicted murderer will be back in court on Monday morning attempting to have his conviction and life sentence set aside.
A hearing on a motion filed by Timothy Scott Simpson claiming that his attorney, Michael Curtis, failed to provide him with effective representation during his 2007 trial in the shooting death of 28-year-old Faith Clay of Flatwoods is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. before Boyd Circuit Judge C. David Hagerman.
The hearing was originally scheduled for March 3, but was postponed due to Curtis, who will be called as a witness, being involved in the Timothy Emerson murder trial in Carter County.
Simpson, 27, was sentenced to life for murdering Clay in his Boyd Street apartment in February 2006. Jurors also convicted Simpson of evidence-tampering for moving the gun used in the shooting prior to police arriving and recommended he be sentenced to five years on that charge, to run consecutively with his life term.
The Kentucky Supreme Court in June upheld Simpson’s sentence and conviction, but ordered that he be resentenced because Kentucky law does not allow a defendant to be sentenced to a term of years to run consecutive with a life sentence.
Clay, who had been staying with Simpson for about three weeks prior to the shooting, was found on Simpson’s couch on Feb. 16, 2006, dead of a gunshot wound to her right eye. Police initially thought Clay’s death was a suicide, and Simpson told officers Clay had shot herself with his 9 mm pistol.
However, investigators began to suspect Simpson had shot Clay after learning he had been known to fire his gun around his apartment, with homemade silencers fashioned from plastic two-liter soft drink bottles attached to the barrel.
Shards of green plastic that appeared to come from a soft drink bottle were found in Clay’s hair, on her head and under her right eye. A portion of a white plastic bottle ring also was found on her body.
Defense witnesses testified during Simpson’s trial that Clay was a homeless drug addict who was depressed over having her three children taken away from her and who had made statements about killing herself.
However, prosecution witnesses countered that the levels of methadone and Xanax in Clay’s system at the time of the shooting were so high she likely would have been incapable of firing a gun, especially one with a two-liter bottle attached to it.
Simpson is currently housed in the Boyd County Detention Center and has been since Feb. 24, according to the jail’s Web site. He is serving his life sentence at the Kentucky State Penitentiary at Eddyville. Under state sentencing guidelines, he will be eligible to meet with the parole board after he has served 20 years.
KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.
