Simms charged with murder

Former Platte County High School assistant freshman basketball coach accused of killing his girlfriend

A 31-year-old Kansas City man, who was an assistant coach for the Platte County High School freshman boys basketball team the past three seasons, has been charged with first-degree murder in the April 30 homicide of his girlfriend.

Marcus J. Simms was charged last week in Clay County with the Class A felony as well as a felony charge of armed criminal action and was returned to the Clay County Jail under a $1 million bond. He had been held there since the April 30 homicide on a tampering charge after he reportedly ran bloody and naked from the crime scene and was later found in a vehicle that did not belong to him in Platte County hours after the alleged murder. Authorities allege Simms stabbed Michele Boldridge to death at their Northland apartment. If convicted of the first-degree murder charge, Simms faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole. According to court documents, shortly before 7 a.m. April 30, Kansas City police officers were dispatched to a Northland apartment complex at 79th and North Hickory, where several calls had been received about a naked black man covered in blood. During a search at the complex, officers found a bloody jacket with an ID card inside bearing the name of Marcus J. Simms. Officers determined Simms’s residence was at the apartment complex. They then contacted a witness, whose apartment was directly below Simms’s. The witness said she had heard an argument in the apartment above her between a male and female. Later she said she heard thumping, thrashing and a woman screaming and yelling “Stop, Stop, Stop!” Officers checked Simms’s apartment and observed what appeared to be blood on the doorknob, which was locked. The officers then entered the apartment and found Boldridge dead. Officers then contacted a witness who was a co-worker of Simms. The witness said he gave Simms a ride home after they both worked the night shift at area grocery store. A review of the store surveillance videotape showed Simms wearing the same jacket that officers later discovered with blood on it and Sims’s ID card in it. Authorities allege Simms then approached a bus driver from the Liberty School District shortly after 7 a.m. April 30 at the Liberty School District bus parking lot in Liberty. The woman said a naked black man, about 5-feet, 8-inches tall, with short dreadlocks and with blood on his left hand, approached her while she was in her bus. The woman said she told the man to “go away,” to which he replied, “You don’t understand, someone just killed my girlfriend.” A surveillance video covering some of the property shows a naked black man attempt to gain entrance into the bus building. He then left the field of view. A few seconds later, a silver minivan driven by a black male exited the parking lot. He appeared to have a blue key lanyard in his right hand and an electronic device in his left. His hands also appear to be stained red.

Find the whole story in this week's issue of The Platte County Citizen.