Vermilion woman guilty of murder

Woman convicted in 2009 murder of her husband

After nearly eight years of her case in the judicial system, Julene M. Simko was convicted Oct. 20 of murdering her husband while he slept in their Vermilion home.

Simko, 39, was found guilty by Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Mark A. Betleski of one

count of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault and a single count of tampering with evidence along with firearm specifications for the 2009 murder of 36-year-old Jeremy Simko in the second floor bedroom of their North Ridge Road home.

The case raised eyebrows across the county after Simko waived her right to a jury trial and chose to have Betleski decide whether she was guilty.

Betleski gave a detailed explanation of how he came to the decision before pronouncing the verdict.

He began by saying the prosecution, represented by Lorain County Assistant Prosecutor Anthony Cillo and Laura Dezort, failed to prove their theories about possible motives for the crime.

Betleski said he did not believe the crime was spurred on by financial difficulties the pair were going through, their recent loan denial, their sex lives or Simko’s reaction to sexual assault or impropriety from her youth.

“The state didn’t come close to establishing, to this court, what motive, if any, that Ms. Simko may have had in allegedly perpetrating this murder,” he said.

Betleski said he recognized from his own relationship with his wife, that fights between spouses can be caused by any number of things.

“I also recognize that for a husband and a wife, motive may be instantaneous or it may be built over a long period of time,” he said.

Throughout the trial, Simko’s attorneys Jack Bradley and Michael Stepanik, argued the crime may have been committed by a number of alternative suspects, especially an unknown robber.

Betleski said he balanced the evidence to determine whether it was plausible and found it unlikely an unknown robber would have committed the crime due to the lack of any DNA evidence in the house that belonged to anyone but the Simkos, the fact the murder took place at about 6 a.m., there was nothing stolen from the house and the murder weapon was owned by the Simkos.

Betleski also highlighted the security measures that were present in the home and around the property including guard dogs, cameras, alarms and signage.

The judge also said he balanced the evidence to gauge the possibility that an assassin had killed Simko’s husband, but was met with the same issues and the fact Simko was not in the bed with her husband that night.

“There’s only one person in the bed,” Betleski said. “If you’re trying to kill someone, you’re not going to go up to the back of their head when you don’t know whether there’s another person in this household; when you don’t know how quickly you’re going to be found.

“You’re going to come close to emptying that thing as you’re walking

into the bedroom, because the fact of the matter is, that you’re not certain whether you’re going to get caught or not. You don’t want your back to a door that’s open with somebody else possibly coming upon under those circumstances.”

Betleski then turned his attention to what Simko described as her entry into the bedroom.

He said her description of coming into the extremely dark bedroom and seeing blood on the bed didn’t seem probable. He also said her claim that she was performing CPR was not supported by the evidence because he suffered no broken ribs, there was very little blood in the trachea, blood was spread out on his chest and not centralized as if she were performing the maneuver and there was very little blood on the underwear Simko was wearing when police arrived.

Betleski added the killing bullet was fired from two inches away from the back of Jeremy Simko’s head, which seemed consistent with an assailant that was comfortable with getting

that close to him.

“Of the three potential killers here: a stranger robber; an assassin; or Mrs. Simko, the one who would have had the easiest close access to the (victim) was Mrs. Simko,” he said.

Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will later said his office agrees with the long awaited verdict.

“It was a complex case,” Will said. “There’s a tremendous amount of direct evidence, forensic evidence, statements and information to run down, and every time we got information we had more to do.”

Will credited the Vermilion Police Department, his office’s investigators and Cillo and Dezort for putting the case together.

According to Will, Betleski can choose to sentence Simko to 20, 25 or 30 years to life or life without parole solely on the aggravated murder.

If Betleski doesn’t believe the separate counts are allied offenses, Simko could be looking at even more time, Will said.

Betleski revoked Simko’s bond and ordered her taken into custody. He will sentence her at 9 a.m., Oct. 26.