Gary Simmons was executed by the State of Mississippi for the murder of Jeffrey Wolfe
According to court documents Gary Simmons and an accomplice would murder Jeffrey Wolfe who was shot multiple times before he was carved up into pieces. Wolfe girlfriend would be forced into a steel box and sexually assaulted.
Gary Simmons would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Gary Simmons would be executed by lethal injection on June 20 2012
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When Was Gary Simmons Executed
Gary Simmons was executed on June 20 2012
Gary Simmons Case
Gary Simmons, a former grocery store butcher convicted in 1997 of capital murder and rape in a case that is remembered as one of the most gruesome in coast history, is set to die by lethal injection one week from Wednesday.
District Attorney Tony Lawrence, who tried Simmons’ co-defendant, and Pascagoula lawyer Harvey Barton, Simmons’ former legal counsel, said that it’s the horrifying details that make the crime unforgettable.
Simmons, at the time 33, and his former brother-in-law Timothy Milano, 21, were convicted of the murder of Texas man Jeffrey Wolfe, to whom they owed money for marijuana, and the rape of his girlfriend, Charlene Leaser.
After Wolfe was shot dead by Milano, Simmons carved the body into pieces with knives that he had possibly sharpened earlier that day at work, testimony showed. He then dumped the pieces in the bayou near his Moss Point house.
“The one picture I remember in particular is of the head that was recovered intact, chopped off from about here,” Lawrence said, gesturing across the middle of his neck.
Police who arrived on the scene initially saw blood on a boat that Simmons had borrowed from a neighbor. They went on to find a head, fingers, arms, organs and a torso, which contained bullet casings, floating nearby, Lawrence said.
The parts “were just dumped,” he said. “He thought the alligators would go back there and just eat them.”
Instead, about 80 percent of Wolfe’s body was recovered, Lawrence estimated.
Rape victim’s testimony key to solving case
It was the testimony of Charlene Leaser that solved the case, Lawrence said. Simmons had locked her in a large steel box and raped her.
The 18-year-old Leaser was wearing only a sock when she was thrown into the box.
She described how Milano shot Wolfe at least four times. She also detailed the chain of events leading up to the crimes, starting when Wolfe drove from Texas to Moss Point to visit Milano.
According to Wolfe’s father, his son had received a note — found in his apartment — inviting him to visit.
Simmons and Milano toted the body parts from the house to the bayou in a pair of buckets, making several trips, Lawrence said.
“Milano’s statement was something to the effect of, ‘It’s a lot worse than we thought — there is so much more blood than we thought,'” Lawrence said.
“In between doing all this, Charlene will tell you that the lid opens, she smells bleach, she’s raped, put back in the box, and the lid is slammed shut.”
From within the box, Leaser was able to hear muffled voices and odd noises, he said.
Marijuana was the key to the crime: Simmons owed Wolfe money for thousands of dollars worth of it.
Court documents show the defendants expected Wolfe to be carrying $20,000 that they could steal, but he had only about $1,000, a disappointment to them.
Hours after the violence, Leaser, from inside the box, heard the phone “ring and ring and ring,” Lawrence said, a clue that no one else was in the house.
She kicked at the lid of the box until she was able to break free, ran to a neighbor’s house, and had the neighbor call the police, he said. It was sometime after 6 in the morning.
Police arrested Milano first, at his Pascagoula apartment, testimony shows.
As news about the killing spread, Simmons drove to his ex-wife’s home in Mobile to make a video confession, according to Lawrence. He turned himself in a day or so later, he said.
Hazy picture of condemned emerges
Prior to the killing, Pascagoula lawyer Harvey Barton had represented Simmons on relatively minor offenses, such as DUI, as well as on issues related to his divorce.
Barton recalls that Simmons called him late on the same day that Leaser had called the police.
“He said, ‘Look, I’m in serious trouble — will you be my lawyer?'” Barton said.
By then, Barton had heard the details of the crime, knew that’s what Simmons was calling about and felt stunned. “It seemed completely out of character for him to do this,” Barton said. “It did not seem to line up with anything I knew about Gary.”
Barton said that he offered to go get Simmons and bring him back to turn himself in.
Barton said the video that Simmons made showed him expressing remorse for his crimes and apologizing to his ex-wife and two daughters.
“I think it humanized him,” said Barton, whose motion to have the video admitted during the sentencing was denied.
Shortly after the arrest, a former pastor at Simmons’ church recalled him as affable but reserved. A co-worker, meanwhile, said that Simmons’ was nice but had a strange side and would occasionally talk about sex fantasies involving locking women up. Someone who lived near him in Kreole said that after Simmons’ wife and kids moved out, the house became the scene of noise, trash and suspicious comings and going.
A former tenant of Simmons’ said that he had attempted to persuade teenagers in the neighborhood to kill black people, although the pastor said he never recalled any racism from Simmons. The church had black members, the pastor said.
Barton, for his part, remembers Simmons as a tall, fit man who had his personal problems but otherwise seemed polite and low-key.
“He was never over the top with his personality — kind of quiet and soft,” he said.
Barton said he believes that Gary Simmons may have originally been from Arizona. Court documents allege that he possibly suffered abuse as a child.
Execution looms
Gary Simmons, now 49, has gained weight since that night in August 15 years ago.
Barton said the state Supreme Court earlier this month setting the execution date represented the end of the line for Simmons.
The court rejected Simmons’ claim that some of his post-conviction counsel had been ineffective.
Barton and Lawrence said they are certain that the brutality of the case — the rape and post-mortem dismemberment — played a role in the jury’s unanimous decision to sentence Gary Simmons to death.
Milano received life without parole. Records show that he, along with a twin sister, were abandoned by their mother — a heroin addict who frequented biker bars — in Oklahoma when they were toddlers, and were later adopted. He attended special education classes as Pascagoula High School, records show.
Barton said he originally attempted to strike a deal for Simmons to make a guilty plea in exchange for life without parole, but failed. “At that point you know you are basically fighting for someone’s life,” he said.
Barton said that he plans to travel to Parchman penitentiary in the Delta to spend time with Simmons before he’s executed by lethal injection. He said he’s not sure whether he will witness the execution.
Said Lawrence: ” I think that 12 citizens listened to the evidence in this case and followed the law and rendered a sentence they thought was just, and I think that sentence should be carried out.”
https://www.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2012/06/horrifying_murder_rape_case_re.html
