Defense says Timberview school shooting suspect acted out of fear; jury watches video
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Mansfield Timberview High School shooting
Four people were injured in a shooting at Mansfield Timberview High School in Arlington. Police arrested the shooter, a student at the school.
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Gunsmoke floated along the ceiling in the brick corridor of lockers, water fountains and a glass trophy case at Timberview High School.
Zacchaeus Selby darted to the hall from a classroom, stumbling, falling and attempting to stand.
A classmate, Timothy Simpkins, was right behind him with a .45-caliber Glock in his hand.
Selby crawled on his back toward a stairwell where he appeared to intend to seek escape. Seconds earlier he had been fired upon inside the second-floor classroom.
Simpkins spread his feet, aimed the pistol and fired at Selby, who looked up at the teenager shooting him.
A surveillance camera recording of the hallway encounter was on Tuesday played for jurors in Simpkins’ trial on attempted capital murder in 371st District Court in Tarrant County. From an area above the door to the classroom where Selby and Simpkins were to be in an English class, two connecting halls were within the camera’s view.
Also played for jurors was a cellphone video recording of a fight in a classroom in which Selby and Simpkins were involved. Prosecutors and the defense dispute whether the fight was underway or had concluded when Simpkins shot Selby. The defense attorneys’ case has focused on Simpkins’ fear of Selby, which they said motivated and justified the shooting.
Selby, who was 15, pummeled Simpkins, who was 18, the cellphone video shows.
Defense attorney Leesa Pamplin, who represents Simpkins with Marquetta Clayton, on cross examination asked the lead Arlington police detective on the case whether Selby can be heard during the fight saying, “On Blood, [expletive], on Blood.”
Violent Crimes Unit Detective Sean Wheetley said he heard that Selby statement, a street gang reference, in the video.
Pamplin also asked Wheetley if he knew what if any effect being stomped on the head had on the defendant’s brain.
“I don’t know anything about that, ma’am,” Wheetley testified.
Selby was shot in the chest, arm and legs. A teacher, Calvin Pettitt, 25, was shot in the back and also survived. Another student was grazed by a bullet in the Oct. 6, 2021, shooting. The school, in Arlington, is in the Mansfield Independent School District.
Selby has not been called to testify and there was an indication on Tuesday that Simpkins will not take the witness stand. The state rested its case at midday Tuesday.
Lloyd Whelchel displayed for jurors the Glock Model 21 handgun that the prosecutor alleged Simpkins used in the Timberview High shooting before he fled the campus.
Police found the gun and a magazine holding ammunition in a bedroom closet and dresser in an apartment where Simpkins’ sister and a man she dated then lived. Simpkins turned himself in to police in the early afternoon on the day of the shooting.
Whelchel is prosecuting the case with Rose Anna Salinas, the chief of the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office criminal division.
Simpkins’ defense attorneys on Tuesday asked Judge Ryan Hill to hold Selby in contempt of court because of what they was alleged was his violation of the judge’s admonishment when Selby was sworn in as a witness on Friday before jury selection.
Hill did not then directly restrict Selby’s social media commentary.
In the last several days, Selby posted to Instagram a press image of Simpkins in the courtroom. Selby also sent a message to Charley Johnson, a potential witness in the case, a defense attorney said. Johnson recorded the cellphone video of the fight and on Tuesday testified as a defense witness as it was played for the jury.
“What are you doing?” Selby asked in the message that Johnson considered threatening and is an instance of witness tampering, the defense told the judge.
Hill, who has permitted the press to broadcast video of most of the trial, prohibited a television news photographer from recording his supplemental admonishment to Selby on Tuesday as the jury was on a lunch break.
Hill directed Selby to refrain from posting to social media material connected to the trial or from contacting potential witnesses by phone or social media. Selby probably would find himself “sitting in a jail cell” if he violates the additional admonishment, the judge said.
The defense may call a final witness on Wednesday, and both sides will argue on jury instructions, including whether the document will include legal guidance on self-defense.
This story was originally published July 18, 2023 at 9:06 AM.
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