Simcoe testimony contradicts wife on nature of abuse
Contends that she was the aggressor
LOCKPORT— Thomas B. Simcoe took the witness stand Monday and told a story that was diametrically opposed to the one his wife told about the Sept. 29 incident that ended with Simcoe being charged with attempting to kill his wife and a policeman.
Simcoe, 43, said that he and his now-estranged wife, Stacey, 39, had a tempestuous 15-year relationship that produced four children but also featured mutual verbal abuse and frequent physical assaults — but that the aggressor was always Stacey.
Two neighbors also testified about the abuse Monday.
“I saw Stacey slap Mr. Simcoe. A lot of time I saw her kick him,” Rena Garcia said.
“She used to be pretty rough on him,” Richard Braegels said. “I witnessed her smack him in the side of the head.”
“She was bigger than me,” Thomas Simcoe testified. “She would charge at me.”
Simcoe, who acknowledged on the stand that he served 13 months in an Army jail after being convicted of dealing hashish while serving in Germany, also admitted having an affair with a neighborhood woman. However, he said, he was convinced that his wife was cheating on him with one of two men, both of whom were named Ken.
Thomas Simcoe, who is on trial before Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza on two counts of attempted murder, said he pulled a short rope out of his pocket and choked his wife with it only after she attacked him with a knife. He said he had the rope because he had been planning to use it to kill Ken before taking his own life. He said he had tried to kill himself three times before.
Simcoe said he was stabbed over the left eye and in the shoulder, while he also gashed all the fingers on his left hand trying to keep his wife from stabbing him again.
In court, he opened his shirt to show Sperrazza the scar on his shoulder and pointed out his wounds on hospital photos.
But when Stacey Simcoe testified Sept. 9, she said she was awakened on the couch by her husband straddling her with a kitchen knife in his hand, using abusive language and holding the knife to her head.
Thomas Simcoe’s version was that the couple had an argument, which he indicated was typical for them. He testified that he was awakened at about 4 a. m. by his wife yelling at him. He said he wasn’t fully awake and didn’t know what the problem was.
“I was told to leave, and I refused to leave. It was 4 in the morning, and I didn’t do anything wrong,” Thomas Simcoe said.
He said that his wife left with a pillow to sleep on the couch and that he followed her, sitting down on the end of the couch. “I was kicked a few times,” he said.
Thomas Simcoe said he leaned back and closed his eyes but heard his wife get up and walk to the kitchen. He said she returned with a knife and attacked him. He said he pulled out the rope and put it around her neck and choked her twice to keep her from getting back to the knife that had slipped out of her hands in a struggle.
“When I saw her head drop, I released [the rope]. She was making a gurgling sound. I didn’t want to hurt her,” Simcoe said.
When police pounded on the door after his son called 911, Simcoe said, “It didn’t look like I could get Ken, so I decided to go ahead with the suicide. . . . I said to myself, ‘This is it — suicide by cop.’ ”
As an officer broke the door open and stepped past him, Simcoe said, he caught the officer’s eye and yelled, “Shoot me!”
“I just expected to be shot,” he said. “Next thing I know, he has his arms around me at my waist.”
Simcoe said he was zapped with a Taser stun gun twice and fell to the floor.
Prosecutors are to resume cross-examination Wednesday.
