Clark County Court Wrap: Man gets 10 years for trying to kill cyclist

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March 3, 2009

Clark County man sentenced in child solicitation case

By MATT THACKER The News and Tribune Tue Mar 03, 2009, 01:38 PM EST

A man who pleaded guilty last month to attempted murder was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison with 10 years probation.

Justin Keith Simpson, 20, struck a bicyclist, Eric May, with his car along Gill Road in New Washington on July 27, 2006. As part of the guilty plea, Simpson admitted he did so with the intent to kill May, who was 32 at the time.

Simpson also pleaded guilty to five counts of class C felony burglary and three counts of class D felony theft. Clark County Superior Court No. 1 Judge Vicki Carmichael sentenced Simpson to four years in prison on each burglary and theft count. Simpson’s attorney, Niles Driskell, said those sentences will all run concurrently.

Those concurrent sentences for burglary and theft also will run concurrently to the 10 years on the attempted murder charge, meaning it will not result in any additional prison time.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Carmichael could have sentenced Simpson to a maximum of 25 years in prison.

Driskell said his client was happy with the judge’s decision on sentencing.

“I feel like it was an opportunity for Mr. Simpson to have some closure,” Driskell said. “We had two very serious cases, and we were happy to have them run concurrently.”

Simpson and his grandfather spoke at the hearing. The victim lives in Oklahoma and did not testify at the hearing. Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jeremy Mull said he conveyed the victim’s wish that Simpson be sentenced to the maximum possible prison time.

May had a head injury and severe laceration to his leg, which may still require amputation, Mull said.

“The judge had a lot of factors to consider in this case, and she issued what she thought to be an appropriate sentence,” Mull said. “The prosecutor is glad Mr. Simpson will be out of the community for a long time so as not to victimize hard-working citizens by committing burglaries and theft.”

Police said Simpson was part of a burglary ring and believe he may have thought May was feeding information to county police. Police say May was never an informant.

According to court records, Simpson admitted to detectives that he approached May with a steel bar after running over him. Simpson allegedly said he planned to “finish him” before he noticed witnesses were there.

Simpson has served 21⁄2 years and may only have to serve a total of five years with good time credit. If that happens, he would be eligible for work release for the final two years of his prison sentence.

Once Simpson enters the work release program, a hearing will be held for restitution for the burglary and theft victims.

Simpson can appeal the sentence but not the conviction. Driskell said he did not intend to appeal at this time.

Howell gets 21⁄2 years

A former Clark County emergency dispatcher was sentenced Friday to 21⁄2 years in prison for inappropriately chatting with minors online and then trying to cover it up.

Jeff Howell, 58, was convicted by a jury of class C felony child solicitation in Marion County Criminal Court No. 3. He was convicted later that week of class D felony obstruction of justice.

He was sentenced to two years in prison and two years probation for child solicitation. He was also sentenced to six months in prison for obstruction of justice with that sentence to run consecutively to the first.

Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Mary Hutchinson said Howell was chatting with someone he thought was a minor, but was actually an Indianapolis Metro Police Department detective.

The second charge came when Howell was out on bond from the first case. He told an underage girl from Montana to send offline messages to change the Internet protocol, or IP, address to make it look like he was not the one chatting with the detective, Hutchinson said.

The maximum sentence he could have received was 11 years in prison.