As murder trial starts, wife tells of man’s killing

The last time Shada Simpson saw her husband alive, the 36-year-old Little Rock man was collapsed over a porch railing, crying out that he’d been shot and was dying.

Simpson said she moved to help him but he warned her off, his last words were for her to run because the gunman was still nearby. She fled home but soon returned with police.

The tearful 32-year-old woman recounted those final moments with Brandon David Simpson, her husband of six months, in front of a Pulaski County jury Tuesday at the first-degree murder trial of 35-year-old Scott Andrew Severance.

But what authorities call murder, Severance’s lawyers Louis Etoch and Robert Lewis say is clear-cut self-defense. They told jurors that Severance, a Colorado man who’d recently moved to Little Rock with his girlfriend, had shot Simpson, a friend and neighbor, with Simpson’s own gun by accident as the men fought over the weapon during a struggle in Severance’s living room on Mara Lynn Road the day after Christmas 2020.

“[Severance] didn’t gain anything by shooting Brandon Simpson,” Etoch said in opening statements. “He didn’t want to shoot Brandon Simpson. Brandon was his friend, no doubt about it.”

In Severance’s version of events, Simpson refused to leave the Severance home when Severance demanded that he leave after Severance’s girlfriend accused Simpson of trying to break into the residence earlier that same night. Simpson pulled a gun but Severance ended up taking it away, Etoch said.

Simpson was killed by a single gunshot to the abdomen that pierced a kidney, the attorney said, calling Simpson’s death “sad and tragic.” But if Severance wanted Simpson dead, why only fire one shot, the attorney asked.

Further, a fluke of the wound kept Simpson from bleeding externally, Etoch said, so no one knew how badly the older man was hurt. Simpson was able to walk and talk, and Simpson told Severance he didn’t want an ambulance, the attorney said.

Severance made some mistakes that night, like leaving before police arrived, Etoch said. But Severance cooperated when he was arrested three days later, submitting to a 30-minute interview with detectives, the attorney said.

Proceedings before Circuit Judge Karen Whatley resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday, and prosecutors John Johnson and Justin Brown said they will play the recording for jurors. They urged the nine men and three women to listen skeptically, warning that everything Severance said is self-serving and that not a lot of it is true.

“[Severance] knows Brandon Simpson is dead. He knows he can say anything he wants about Brandon Simpson,” Johnson told jurors in opening statements.

But what Severance didn’t account for is Shada Simpson, the prosecutor said. She might not have seen who killed her husband, but she saw her husband’s final moments, exiting the Severance home and collapsing on the railing, Johnson said.

Severance didn’t know she had run for police, bringing officers to his doorstep within minutes of the shooting, the prosecutor said. When police arrived, they found nothing amiss, no blood, no bullets, the prosecutors said.

No one came to the door despite officers repeatedly knocking, and it was at least 90 minutes before police had enough evidence that Simpson could be inside to break down the door of the Severance home and enter, the prosecutor said.

Severance was gone, although it’s possible he had been hiding in the attic when police broke in, the prosecutor said. Police found Simpson dead in a bedroom, while Severance’s girlfriend was taking a shower in the bathroom. The gun used to kill Simpson was under the bathroom sink, stuck in a box of OxiClean stain remover.

By that time, police had been camped out in front of the home for about two hours, blocking off the street with lights flashing and some sirens sounding as more officers and paramedics came and went, the prosecutor said. But no one in the Severance home ever called for help, Johnson told jurors.

The first witness, Shada Simpson, spent about 47 minutes on the witness stand. She told jurors her husband had asked her to run errands with him that night, one of them being to stop at the Severance home for him to pick up some money that Severance, whom the couple knew as Sergio, owed him for some car speakers.

They were supposed to go to the store next, she said, describing how she played with her phone and ate banana pudding in the couple’s red 2004 Chevrolet Tahoe as Brandon Simpson went into the Severance home.

A few minutes later, a loud noise that rattled the window of the residence drew her attention, followed by Brandon Simpson “collapsing” out of the front door onto a porch rail, she testified.

“He … fell out of the door,” Shada Simpson told jurors. “I was running toward him. He said, ‘He shot me!’ I heard him say, ‘I did not break into your house. You shot me!’ He said [to her] run and get help. He’s got a gun.”

Simpson told jurors she’d only met Severance and his girlfriend once. It was a chance encounter at a store about six weeks earlier, she said, telling jurors that Severance had introduced the woman as his wife. Simpson said she thought they were nice people.

Severance’s girlfriend, Lindsey Janae Krasovic, 33, of Jacksonville, is not accused of participating in the slaying but is charged with being in possession of a firearm and hindering apprehension after investigators reported she tried to mislead them about Severance’s identity. She will be tried later.