Timberview school shooter pleads guilty on 1 count, all other charges dropped in plea deal
Convicted Timberview High School shooter Timothy Simpkins pleaded guilty in district court Thursday to the charge of unlawfully carrying a weapon at school, and the remainder of the new charges against him were dropped as part of a plea bargain negotiated by his defense attorneys and the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
Tarrant County 371st District Court Judge Ryan Hill sentenced Simpkins to two years — which will run concurrently with the 12-year sentence he’s already serving — and gave him credit for time already served.
Simpkins’ attorney Lesa Pamplin told the Star-Telegram that the defendant was just ready to get this over with.
“He’s relieved,” she said.
Simpkins, now 20, was found guilty of attempted capital murder in July 2023 for a shooting that wounded a teacher and two students at the Mansfield ISD school in Arlington on Oct. 6, 2021.
In the months following his conviction, Simpkins was indicted on several additional charges, which included unlawfully carrying a weapon to school the two days before the shooting and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The additional charges were all connected to things that were brought out at the original trial, and things the jurors considered when they sentenced Simpkins, according to court documents filed by the defense.
The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Friday that the additional charges were due to things Simpkins admitted when he testified at his trial in July.
“All of his cases are resolved,” the statement reads. “He agreed to additional prison time on one charge. He will return to prison to continue serving his time.”
Simpkins’ attorneys say the answer to the charges goes back to July 24, the day Simpkins was sentenced. The defense sought a probation recommendation, but prosecutors told the jury a life sentence would be appropriate.
The jury ultimately decided on 12 years with the possibility of parole after six.
Following the trial, Assistant District Attorney Rose Anna Salinas, who helped prosecute the case, “lit into” the jury, Pamplin said. Salinas told jurors she would file other charges against Simpkins with cumulative sentences so he would get more time, according to a motion filed by the defense.
That is exactly what prosecutors tried to do, according to Pamplin.
Simpkins’ attorneys filed a motion Tuesday afternoon seeking to dismiss the charges based on “prosecutorial vindictiveness and outrageous conduct,” on the part of the district attorney’s office.
Hill didn’t address that motion at the hearing Thursday.
“This office does not participate in or condone vindictive prosecution,” the district attorney’s office said in Friday’s statement.
“They tried and failed because he is not adding a single day to his sentence, nothing is changing,” said defense attorney MarQuetta Clayton after Thursday’s hearing. “He’s already got enough time to cover ... the two that he just took.”
Simpkins has earned his GED since going to prison and he’s involved in the welding program. His attorneys say bringing Simpkins back to Tarrant County for trial was an unnecessary interruption to his studies and a waste of taxpayer dollars.
This story was originally published May 16, 2024 at 3:36 PM.
