Marcus Simms was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his girlfriend Michelle Boldridge April 30, 2014, says Clay County prosecuting attorney Daniel White.
Simms, 36, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for Boldridge’s death. He was also sentenced to 100 years for armed criminal action, and to seven years for tampering with a motor vehicle arising from a subsequent car theft, said the prosecutor.
The sentence followed that assessed by jurors in a three-day trial that concluded Oct. 23, said the prosecutor.
Clay County Circuit Court Judge Janet L. Sutton ordered the sentences run consecutively.
At 7 a.m. April 30, 2014, Kansas City police officers responded to calls of a nude man running around an apartment complex off North Hickory Street, Kansas City in Clay County. Evidence at the location was found which identified the nude man as Simms. Officers went to Simms’ residence and found Boldridge’s body.
At approximately 7:15 a.m. that same morning, Simms — still nude — appeared at the Liberty Public School Bus Barn on Highway 291 where he appropriated a minivan.
No students were at the Bus Barn during Simms’ jaunt through the property said White.
Shortly after the minivan was stolen, Parkville police officers responded to an accident involving a minivan running off the road and there they found Simms — still commando — and took him into custody.
Police located a human eyeball in a car parked in the vicinity. Simms’ DNA was also located in that car. The victim died from a snapped neck and multiple stab wounds, and was missing an eye.
“This is one of the most bizarre cases I’ve seen,” said White. “To murder a loved one, carry her gouged out eye from the crime, and then strip naked and steal a minivan? Very weird.”
Litigating the case for the state was Chief Deputy Assistant Prosecutor Robert L. Sanders and Assistant Prosecutor Shannon Ryser.