Guilty: Simmons awaits final sentencing

Brent Simmons (’96) was found guilty Monday on one interstate stalking conviction and two counts of the use of a firearm in a killing.

The jury is still deliberating a sentence for Simmons, which could lead to the death penalty or life in prison under the Violence Against Women Act.

Simmons’ conviction is related to the murders of JMU students Ann Olson and Keith O’Connell on Oct. 12, 1996. On Tuesday, the jury agreed the murders were premeditated, so Simmons now could face the death penalty.

Prosecutors called witnesses to testify that Simmons had solicited a hit on O’Connell from a Harrisonburg drug dealer in the late summer of 1996. The defense argued that neither of the witnesses are credible, as both are convicted felons.

The prosecution also brought forth a witness, Leonard Binkley of Orlando, Fla., who testified that Simmons had asked Binkley to buy him a gun. Binkley worked with Simmons the summer and fall of 1996. Because Simmons already owned a gun, the gun he allegedly used in the murders, the prosecution suggested that Simmons was trying to obtain a "clean" gun. But Binkley never purchased the gun.

The defense admitted that Simmons did commit the murders, but that the prosecution did not have enough evidence to prove that Simmons had committed the murders beyond a reasonable doubt.

As of press time, both the prosecution and defense are presenting witnesses to the jurors as part of the sentencing phase of the trial before a final sentence is reached by the jury.

— from staff reports