Aiexpress – A woman from Mississippi who was sentenced to life in prison for trapping her boyfriend in a freezer and causing his death has had her appeal for conviction denied, as reported by local sources.
In 2022, Samantha Simmons was found guilty of killing her boyfriend, Thomas Burns. From what WLBT says, they lived together for a short time before he died in 2018.
In March 2018, the man’s neighbors became worried when they hadn’t seen him in a while. A few weeks later, they saw a truck taking his furniture away, according to the news source.
The outlet said that Burns’ older brother Kenneth finally searched the house and found his body inside a locked freezer with his legs zip-tied together. He also had a plastic bag around his head.
Burns and Simmons were both linked to the zip ties by DNA evidence. When Simmons was later arrested, a key that fit the padlock on the freezer was found on her key ring.
The court denied Simmons’ appeal, stating that there was ample evidence presented by the state to establish her involvement in the murder of Burns.
The court recognized that the evidence in this case is based on circumstantial information. Nonetheless, they emphasized that direct evidence is not required to support a conviction as long as there is enough circumstantial evidence to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The court concluded that there was sufficient circumstantial evidence in this case to establish that Simmons was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
