Columbus jury reaches verdict in ex-con’s trial for fatal beating during a brawl
Guilty on all charges.
That was a Columbus jury’s verdict in the murder trial of Michael Edward Simmons, who was accused of fatally injuring Christopher Williams on Oct. 13, 2022, during a fight outside the Oakland Park home of Simmons’ estranged girlfriend.
Simmons, 61, was found guilty of malice or intentional murder, of felony murder for causing Williams’ death while committing the felony of aggravated assault, and of aggravated assault.
He faces life in prison. Judge Ron Mullins said he will schedule a sentencing date later.
The jury deliberated about 20 minutes Thursday after closing arguments, during which defense attorney Anthony Johnson argued Simmons had to punch Williams repeatedly because Williams was choking Simmons.
The two men were fighting outside the Blan Street home of Effie Martin, who had dated Simmons before they broke up two years earlier. Williams was engaged to Martin’s daughter, who was in addiction recovery at the time, and Martin had allowed him to stay with her, giving him a key to her house.
She testified that she still maintained a casual friendship with Simmons, who lived nearby on Wise Street, but would not allow him into her home uninvited.
She said she had gone to bed when Simmons came to her home around 8:30 p.m. and knocked on her door, and she did not answer. She also did not respond when Simmons knocked on her bedroom window, she said.
When Williams arrived there from work, Simmons tried to push his way into the house, and Williams stood in his way, she said.
As the two men struggled, Simmons punched Williams in the face, knocking him out, and then continued to hit Williams as he lay on the ground. Williams died Oct. 19 from bleeding in his brain.
Simmons’ attorney said his client had a right to defend himself, under Georgia law, because Williams attacked him.
“He was in the fight of his life,” Johnson told the jury. He showed them photos from Simmons’ cell phone, reportedly taken on Oct. 20, that he said depicted marks on Simmons’ neck.
If Williams had a right to choke Simmons, during their struggle, then Simmons had a right to punch Williams to protect himself, Johnson said. So the prosecution can’t argue that only Williams had the right to use such force, he said: “That’s not the law in the state of Georgia.”
Who’s the aggressor?
Prosecutor Anthony Pickett countered that the law was on Williams’ side, because he had a right to be at Martin’s home, and Simmons did not.
So when Simmons tried to push his way in, Williams was justified in standing in his way, and in defending Martin’s residence, Pickett said, of Simmons adding, “You can’t use self-defense if you’re the aggressor.”
He described Simmons as a possessive ex-boyfriend exhibiting the same pattern of conduct as other men who perpetuate abusive relationships that mistreated women try to end.
“He thought he owned her,” the prosecutor said.
The day after the fight, Simmons showed up at a South Lumpkin Road laundry where Martin worked, and started following her around, pointing his finger in her face and yelling at her, Pickett noted. The confrontation was caught on video shown the jury, but the footage had no audio.
When Martin went outside the laundry to smoke, Simmons followed her, slapping a cigarette out of her mouth when she lit it, and telling her, “I’ll kill anyone who puts his hands on me,” the prosecutor said.
Williams, 55, fell dead in his bedroom the morning of Oct. 19, 2022. An autopsy found a half-inch layer of clotted blood in the right side of his brain, causing headaches and nausea in the days leading up to his death.
Among those attending each day of the trial was his niece, Shanequa Williams, who afterward said his death left a void in the family.
“My Uncle Chris was a breath of fresh air. He loved his family and friends. Chris was someone who loved to help others no matter who you were,” she wrote in an email to the Ledger-Enquirer.
“He loved to collect and build things. One of his favorite things was to sit and read the Bible. His moments speaking to God were very important to him. He was someone you could go to and talk to about anything.”
He was the second-oldest of five siblings, and “his presence was everything,” she added. “Him not being here has taken a toll on this family.... He is truly truly missed daily.”
Simmons has spent most of his life in prison, and now may spend the rest of it there. At age 16, he was convicted of raping and drowning his 7-year-old half-sister in Oakland Park in 1978, and served almost 40 years in prison.
He was released in 2018, and returned to the same Wise Street home where he grew up.
This story was originally published November 30, 2023 at 12:43 PM.