JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville man, whose conviction in a double ax murder in 1999 was thrown out earlier this year, pleaded guilty Tuesday to two lesser counts of second-degree murder.
The judge at Tuesday afternoon’s hearing noted that Jason Simpson, who was once on death row but was set to receive a new trial, had previously maintained his innocence, and Simpson was ordered released on nearly 20 years served, followed by five years’ probation.
Simpson, 49, walked out of the Duval County jail later Tuesday night as a free man for the first time since September 2002.
He is also under a no-contact order for several people, including the victims’ families and prosecutors in the case. If he sees them in person or through someone or contacts them online, it would violate his probation, and he would be taken back into custody.
Simpson’s guilty plea was a part of a special plea deal to forego a trial where prosecutors likely don’t have enough evidence to convict him again.
The Fourth Circuit State Attorney’s Office issued the following statement to News4JAX:
“Since the defendant’s jury trial and convictions in 2007, there have been significant changes in critical witness testimony that dramatically impact the strength of the State’s case.
“Given these evidentiary issues, the State has accepted the defendant’s offer to plead guilty — a resolution that is in the best interest of justice.”
The State Attorney’s Office acknowledged the families of the victims -- Archie Howard Crook and Kimberli Kimbler -- “are not satisfied with the outcome” of the case, and News4JAX spoke with Kimbler’s daughter, Charlein Kimbler-Honeycutt, and Kimbler’s sister, Melinda Prestwood.
“He is going from death row to the street. Thank you, Florida,” said Prestwood. “We don’t have the physical evidence anymore because JSO (Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office) did not preserve stuff like they should have now like they do now with DNA. Because back in those days, DNA was all brand new, so they didn’t preserve none of that stuff. So we can’t preserve physical evidence. Everybody that was involved in the situation is either in prison for life or dead.”
Kimbler-Honeycutt is left to wonder who the killer is as Simpson walks free.
“I am always really nervous about it because all you need to do is look up somebody’s tag number and look up where they live or their names,” she said. “I don’t know. I don’t really know anything about it, I am scared because I just wish none of this had happened.”
The Florida Supreme Court said in January that Simpson should receive a new trial because prosecutors did not disclose that a witness against him was a confidential informant for the state.
Simpson was convicted in the murders of drug dealer Crook and Crook’s pregnant girlfriend, Kimberli Kimbler. They were hacked to death with an ax in the bedroom of their home, according to the Supreme Court ruling.
The witness whose work as an informant had not been disclosed was Crook’s son, Archie Clyde Crook -- identified in the ruling as “Little Archie.” Simpson’s defense attorneys argued during the trial that Little Archie had killed his father and Kimbler.
Little Archie had served as an informant against another man, George Michael Durrance, who was described in the ruling as being an associate of the Crook father and son and Simpson in the drug trade.
Durrance also was a figure in the Simpson murder case, and the Supreme Court, in a 5-1 decision, said Little Archie’s role as a confidential informant should have been disclosed.
The majority opinion said the “relationship between Simpson, Little Archie, and Durrance was of critical importance in this case, and the information Little Archie provided to law enforcement pertaining to Durrance casts a different light on this relationship.”
The opinion, shared by Justices Ricky Polston, Jorge Labarga, Alan Lawson, John Couriel and Jamie Grosshans, also said “Little Archie’s testimony and credibility were of significant consequence when we consider the lack of evidence linking Simpson to the scene of the crime.”
But Chief Justice Charles Canady dissented, writing that the failure to disclose the information about the informant “was not material and did not prejudice Simpson.”
“The fact that Little Archie had been a source to law enforcement in unrelated matters is of little, if any, relevance, and in light of the other information known to the jury about Little Archie, would not have been an indication that he had a particular bias toward law enforcement or the state,” Canady wrote. “There is no reasonable probability that had this information been disclosed to Simpson, the result of Simpson’s trial would have been different.”
Justice Carlos Muniz was recused from the case.
Current State Attorney Melissa Nelson was one of the original prosecutors in the case.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.