Clayton Simms Saved our Son
Our son was charged with a bizarre kidnapping and was facing three aggravated felony charges of 15 years to life each. A week later he was charged with an equally bizarre robbery and kidnapping that added another five charges of 15 years to life each. He was incarcera...ted without bail for 14 months and lost 30 pounds while suffering through the jail diet.
In the first case the investigating detective and prosecutor coached and coaxed the plaintiff to testify, and offered the co-defendant pre-trial release if he would testify against our son. The detective was then honored by the police department as Officer of the Month for “putting a violent felon behind bars.†In the second case the investigating detective tried to get a confession by claiming he had two eye-witness victims who positively identified him as the bandit. The following month this detective was also honored as Officer of the Month. Clearly a desperate situation. Our son was looking at a lifetime in prison and the loss of any opportunity to raise his beautiful children. We called Clayton Simms for help.
During the first trial Clayton demonstrated his exceptional mastery of the criminal law courtroom environment by painting a picture of the plaintiff as a willing participant in an event that was little more than a family fight: she willingly got into the car; she got back out and went back to the apartment to get her phone and cigarettes; she argued with the two people in the front seat while the defendant got out of the car and went into a restaurant to get a soft drink. He painted a picture of the authorities hardly believing her story; the plaintiff contributed to the air of unbelievability by showing up from prison to testify, wearing prison garb and constrained by leg irons and handcuffs. Thanks to Clayton efforts, the felony charges were thrown out and our son received a “hand slap†of two misdemeanor convictions.
During the second trial Clayton aggressively went after the two plaintiffs, leading to the admission by one of the two plaintiffs that he could not identify the robber as our son. Clayton argued that the identification had been tainted by observation of the defendant’s mug shot on the internet. Additionally, two alibi witnesses testified that the defendant was with them the entire night of the supposed robbery. Clayton introduced the two alibi witnesses and walked them through the confirmation that they were indeed with the defendant the entire night of the supposed robbery. The jury deliberated and returned NOT GUILTY verdicts on all counts.
Thanks to the determined efforts of Clayton Simms, our son is now a free man. We owe a great debt of gratitude to this outstanding attorney.