Houston County murder case to go before Georgia Supreme Court Monday

WARNER ROBINS -- The Georgia Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments Monday related to a double homicide in Houston County in 1989.

Dwight L. Simmons, who was convicted of murdering his aunt and uncle at age 17 when he was a Perry High School junior, is requesting a new trial.

His argument is that attorneys abandoned his case resulting in a 16-year “unconscionable delay” in the pursuit of his appeal, according to a summary of oral arguments before the state Supreme Court next week. Justices are expected to issue a ruling at a later date.

In November 1990, a Houston County jury found Simmons guilty of murder, aggravated assault, theft by taking and related weapons charges in the April 16, 1989, slaying of Willie and Bessie Lewis, according to the summary from the public information office for the court.

Simmons was given two life sentences plus 15 years based on a recommendation from the jury. The prosecution had sought the death penalty.

In December 1990, defense attorneys filed an appeal for Simmons. But there is no record of any other filings until Dec. 11, 2006, when Warner Robins attorney Jeff Grube, his new court-appointed attorney, resumed the motion for a new trial, the summary stated. The motion was denied in 2011. Simmons appealed to the state Supreme Court.

On the night of the murders, high school friends who had gone to the Lewis home in search of Simmons to play basketball saw the bodies of the elderly couple lying on the floor. Bessie Lewis had been shot in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun, the summary stated. Willie Lewis had been stabbed in the head and neck and then covered with a pillow before being shot in the head.

According to prosecutors, bloody shoe prints were found on the pillow and created a trail out the back door, through a field behind the home and onto a dirt road, the summary stated.

Simmons showed up at the murder scene wearing shorts and no shoes, and it was a cold night. Converse tennis shoes that matched the prints from the murder scene were found later at the home Simmons shared with his sister. The shoes were wet and muddy, the summary stated.

Simmons confessed to the slayings and led sheriff’s investigators to the murder weapon in an irrigation pond behind the home of his aunt and uncle, the summary stated.

At his first-appearance hearing in April 1989 in which Simmons had requested an attorney but did not have one, Simmons blurted out, “I’m guilty. I’m guilty.”

In April 1990, the state Supreme Court reversed the pre-trial hearing ruling that the “I’m guilty” statement was inadmissible. “Justices found that a first appearance hearing is not a critical stage in a prosecution and the right to counsel does not apply at that stage,” the summary stated.

But the defense position is that the former Houston County public defenders who represented Simmons at trial dropped the ball with the original appeal in 1990 and that his case was forgotten, the summary stated.

“Dwight Simmons has been in jail or prison for almost 23 years without any resolution on his appeal,” the defense stated in court briefs, according to the summary.

Also, key witnesses have died or moved on, and much of the original case file is gone.

“Regretfully, attempting to properly put together this appellate brief is like putting together a 350-piece jigsaw puzzle with 250 pieces,” the defense stated in its brief to the court, according to the summary.

The defense asked the state Supreme Court to overrule its 1990 ruling, to find that the trial judge was wrong in denying a trial postponement for the production of transcripts and that the lower court erred because the state did not provide sufficient evidence for a guilty verdict according to the summary.

But the prosecution disagreed that Simmons’ original attorneys were ineffective, the summary stated.

“In fact, it can be argued that the performance was very effective since the jury returned a sentence of life rather than death,” the prosecution noted in its brief according to the summary. “Further, as to his motion for new trial and appeal, (Simmons) again fails to show how any delay has prejudiced his defenses in the event of retrial or resentencing.”

Although not condoning the delay between the trial and appeal, the prosecution argued there is nothing in the court record to indicate that Simmons asserted his own right to appeal, the summary stated.

The prosecution also argued the “I’m guilty” statements made by Simmons constituted a “spontaneous utterance,” which is admissible and was not made during an interrogation, the summary stated.

Also, no motion for a trial delay was made in relation to the transcripts at the time of trial, and the evidence of Simmons’ guilt was overwhelmingly in support of the jury’s verdict, the prosecution argued according to the summary.

Houston County District Attorney George Hartwig and Chief Assistant District Attorney Daniel P. Bibler are the current prosecutors.

To contact writer Becky Purser, call 256-9559.

This story was originally published May 2, 2012 at 12:04 PM.