The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
TRIAL NEARING END
Closing arguments held in case of Vermilion woman accused of killing husband in 2009
The Julene Simko murder trial is nearing its end as both parties presented their closing arguments to Lorain County Common Pleas Court Judge Mark A. Betleski on Sept. 26.
Simko, 38, of Vermilion, has been standing trial for the past two weeks on charges that she shot her husband of 10 years in the back of his head with a .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson revolver while he slept in their bedroom in the early morning hours of Nov. 18, 2009.
She is facing a single count of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault and a single count of tampering with evidence.
The verdict will be delivered after (Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Mark A.) Betleski reviews the evidence.
Lorain County Assistant Prosecutor Laura Dezort started the nearly sevenhour proceeding by highlighting the numerous inconsistencies present in Simko’s five recorded interviews with investigators.
Four of these interviews were carried out by the Vermilion Police Department within the hours immediately following it being called to the Simko’s North Ridge Road home at 6 a.m. on Nov. 18, 2009. The fifth was conducted in 2013 by investigators from the Lorain County Prosecutor’s Office.
She pointed out the varying stories Simko gave about why she was sleeping on the third floor, how Simko was able to tell her husband was bleeding in a nearly pitch black room on top of red bed linens and the lack of physical evidence confirming Simko had performed CPR.
Dezort also honed in on the multiple layers of security in the Simko home, including door alarms, an alarm on the drive way, what she described as guard dogs strategically placed on various parts of the property, security cameras as well as at least two easily reached guns in the home and several more in a safe.
She said there was no sign of forced entry into the home and that DNA tests run on the doorknobs returned positive for Simko and her husband.
“The defendant here wants you to believe the killer is some mysterious intruder who is somehow able to, perhaps in a Mission: Impossible way, avoid all of the security systems in the house and the property, creep up, shoot her husband in the head at extremely close range without
being seen, without being heard and to negotiate back out of the house in the dark without setting off any of the security systems and leave no trace,” Dezort said. “This court will determine that story is a fantasy, it’s a fiction, it’s like a movie script.”
For their closing statement, defense attorneys Jack Bradley and Michael Stepanik divided the duties. Bradley read through the text of the 911 call and interviews pointing out details he felt the prosecution and investigators missed or ignored. Stepanik called the evidence presented into question.
According to Stepanik, the linchpin of the investigation was accidentally recorded after the first interview with the Vermilion police in which an unidentified voice can be heard saying, “She probably did it.”
Stepanik said this shows that the police were rushing to judgment which caused them not to look into other possible suspects including a neighbor, a young man that was seen in the area days before the murder and a former employee.
Stepanik also raised doubt about whether the couple’s recent setback in buying adjacent property
to their own had anything to do with the murder. He said they already had a plan to have her mother co-sign the loan in order to get bank approval.
In the state’s rebuttal, Lorain County Assistant Prosecutor Anthony Cillo said the police did check into the suspects Stepanik claimed they had not and that buying the adjacent property was far more important to Simko than Stepanik let on.
“This property is at the beginning and end of all of this, your honor,” he said. “It is the alpha and the omega of what everyone is thinking in this case.”
Cillo also pointed out a detail in the closing that he believes was overlooked in the case: if another person had come into the darkened bedroom with the intention of killing Jeremy Simko, who was 36, they would have fired another shot into the bed; one meant for Julene Simko.
“Who should have been in bed with him? Her,” Cillo said gesturing to Julene Simko. “You cannot think she’s not there. It’s rare that she’s upstairs. You have to walk over and shoot her too.”
The verdict will be delivered after Betleski reviews the evidence.