SIMONS' LAWYERS DECIDE NOT TO PRESENT EVIDENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303520002-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: May 20, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
sent evi
"John- vas hitting him on the bead, At the defense lawyers' =request
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303520002-8
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE_
RICHMOND NE~
20 May 1983
Simons' lawyers decide
iaLitlir'",_ T7, - played yesterday for the jurybearing cul-de-sac overlooking the James
Jl neysforCarlGSthioas decid _ his case River about a block southwest of the
+edtodayoot opvsi icy!evidenee ' . Gaudet taped his Jan. 3l question- Boulevard Bridge.
nSimo dial ro$degree mur ing of Simons shortly after Gaudet
. rge ng fpm the beat and other.policzmenarrested Simons, Aster the tour, Kirby told of Simons
ins death-Qf~iformer-. mond City' - a resident of Powhatan-County, ~g to him Jan 3 about killing
Councilman J/ wsrdl2wler: Tips from a state police informer crawlerxa mirby, that who admitted
adoa
..a
Thomas P:aollins, a defense attor--who was.told by -Simons of Lawler's criminal iminal record, , also testified athat
ney, announoel thesurprise move of killing led to the arrests.of the defen- about the
tck
ter his motion-to strike the -r'osecu,-- dart, Ballard and -two other persons. Simon bragged agaveo abou drove back
Lion's case-.was overruled by Judge During . his trial, Ballard insisted to Lawler
Richmond as dg ki from the two
Fort w Pierce
WilliamE. Spain m Richmond Circuit that imoms put him arp to killing n, Fla.,
Jan b-
Court, Division JZ::..: Lawler.and told him-to-keep beating 1L
and Simons'-other attorney, .the. elderly .man at ,his Dome at 5011 Kirby said that after fret time he
Collins ..i,arrv Pocbucha, -bad -planned at one Riverside Drive the night of Dec. 30. him about the killing the first time he
point -to let-;Simons, -26,cand -a co- his 18-year-old-sister, Jua- relayed the information to state
ho
ator on to Garrett, who
defendant, Timothy Vii. Dickenson,-W, nit, -who knew Lawler, Simons and . - lice investig
leads
testify. The change in defensestrate- :Dickenson went to Lawler's home in'_ After passed Si mons. themons. i on tod
n
gy occurred overnibbf..t_t , l J -Simons'~car to rob .Lawler and left _ or, tolld him m o the
In moving 'to strikelthe'prosecu . believe l Kirby said, he led Simons to
witha he could line him up with "a
Lion's case, Collins argued that none _llard's trial - r~.
ee- m-Simons io y atBallardgtried ~y ,_ big job, presumably of a criminal
of the evidence put the.murder wp
on, a pair of 2-foot-long bolt-cutters, nature, and one that would pay well~,~ is s #elony murder law on charges~of Kirby said he did so in order to get
' _ Spain asked, . He inever ;had the first-degree murder, breaking and ea- Simons to talk more about the Lawler
tering and -robbery. Under this iaw,ttf
weapon in his hands? What-difference murder.
,does that make if be was acting in a murder occurs during a #elo~such Simons' talking with Kirby and
concert with .one or more other per- As ?a-robbery, all taking -part 4n the -then with Gaudet led to the arrest of
robbery are equally guilty.
sons when they figured an -old -man -Dickenson here and to the arrests in
left money -baying around, and they Sheriff's deputies escorted all four Fort Pierce on Jan. 12 of the Ballards.
were going'there to get money? defendants into the courthouse again , by also testified that Simons
--Richmond Assistant Common- today. -said be had hidden a safe deposit box
wealth's Attorney 'Warren -Von DF. Marcella Fierro, deputy chief -belonging to Lawler in woods behind
'weal ,~count ng the defense actor- state medical examiner, told the ju- 1.awler's home: The night of Jan. 11,
net's'arguments, argued -that, even rors that Lawler died -of a crushed after their return to Richmond, Si-
though Simons -did _ not ~ Lawler. skull about an hour after suffering 17 mons directed him to the Lawler
with the bolt-cutters, Simons was act head wounds and cuts and bruises on 'home, presumably to look for the de.
his forearms. posit box, but.they left when another
lug in -concert with -17-year-old .John In other testimony today. a state car ulled u nearby, Kirby said.
-Robert Ballard, who confessed in his ' P P y, by
trial. two weeks ago to killing Lawler crime laboratory examiner told the Tipped off by the informer, Rich-
:with h6bolt-cutters. jury that hair fragments discovered mood detectives followed Kirby's
-r flartl was convictedof first-de- on the bolt-cutters found by police in car, and in court yesterday Gaudet
,?urder :and is to be -sentenced Simons' van in Fort Pierce, Fla, told the jurors the trailing of the de-
gi'r~eeee matched Lawler's hair. fendant back to the crime scene yield-
During the first day of his trial Simons and the Ballards -droveto ed,"the probable cause" needed for
two after
d
th
i
and 3 3mllered for him to stop, stop," yesterday, Spain took the jurorson.a
ay.firn Simons said on -a tape recording tour of Lawler's one story.homeon a
r
t
g g s ome o ge lice informer, about the killing and some money" the night Lawler was police ~ woods but never found a deposit box
beaten to death. Kirby a newspaper article ! and believe Simons made the story up
Simons also listened s be told about the murder, according to other in his bid to get the equally non-
Richmond Detective James'S. Gaudet testimony. existent "big job" Kirby had told him
,of trying to stop Ballard from beating about.
-the 74-year-old Lawler.to.rdeath
<
se
~
.; b Simons told William . Kirby,
y'
y, a state Detectives said they combed the
cell of oin to Lwl
ay or
e van a
Florida
n
the arrest of Simons
terda Simons had hear~t
im
lf
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303520002-8