I’ve seen a lot of dumb crook stories in my time, but one story that took place near my hometown of Charlotte is certain to be one of the dumbest of all, if not THE dumbest. Rather than face the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison for raping a teenager, a man from Belmont, North Carolina got the bright idea to flee in the middle of his trial. He was caught two days later. As it turned out, he only delayed the inevitable. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to 52 years in prison–all but assuring that the only way he gets out will be in a coffin.
On the night of April 12-13, 2014; 43-year-old Gary Simmons walked into a room where his son was hanging out with a female friend of his then-girlfriend’s daughter. Out of nowhere, he grabbed the girl and raped her. He left the room, then came back a few minutes later and raped her again. The girl didn’t tell anyone about it for two months. She told her father, but no report was made at the time. Finally, she told her mother in September, who went to the police. Simmons was arrested and charged with two counts of statutory rape of a child between the ages of 13 and 15.
Under North Carolina law, statutory rape of a child between the ages of 13 and 15 carries a minimum sentence of 12 years per count and a maximum of 26 years per count. However, Simmons already had one strike against him. More than a decade ago, a 14-year-old girl accused him of raping her. Simmons agreed to plead guilty to assault on a female. Given this past history, it was all but certain that Simmons would be an old man if he got out of jail–that is, if he didn’t die in prison.
On November 16, with jury deliberations well underway at the Gaston County Courthouse in Gastonia, Simmons told his lawyer, Larry Hoyle, that he needed to step out for a smoke. He never returned, prompting judge Linwood Foust to issue a bench warrant for Simmons’ arrest. Foust told the jury to continue deliberations. The next day, the jury convicted Simmons on both charges. Foust had the option of sentencing Simmons in absentia, but decided that he wanted to be certain Simmons was present before sentencing.
Police knew that Simmons had family near Greensboro, as well as near Mount Airy–the inspiration for Mayberry on “The Andy Griffith Show.” He also has family near Myrtle Beach, as well as in Gaffney, South Carolina–best known to people traveling to Atlanta as the home of the Peachoid. However, given how close Belmont is to I-85, the search quickly became national. However, late Saturday, Belmont police found Simmons hiding in the attic of his current girlfriend, Robin Lackey. It turned out that Lackey was on probation, and her probation officer paid her a visit in the belief that Simmons was hiding there.
At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Hoyle asked Foust to run the sentences concurrently–which would have given Simmons at least a fighting chance of getting out of prison alive. However, the victim’s mother said that her daughter’s freedom “depends on the incarceration of her assailant,” whom she denounced as a sadistic criminal. Foust sentenced Simmons to two consecutive sentences of 26 years in prison. At Simmons’ age, it is effectively a life sentence; he will be not be released until he is 95 years old. He also required Simmons to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. However, this stipulation is academic, given the near-certainty that Simmons will die in prison.
Hoyle believed that Simmons fled the courtroom out of fear, and would have likely left the county had he intended to stay on the run. Whatever the case, his four days on the run may have cost him any chance of appealing his sentence. Longstanding precedent holds that people who turn fugitive during a trial have flouted the court’s authority, and under most circumstances forfeit their right to appeal. I can count on one hand the instances where someone like Simmons would even get an appeal heard–like some really egregious misconduct by prosecutors, the judge, or the police. Nine times out of ten, this monster is going to spend the rest of his life where he belongs–behind bars.
