NORMAN V.
KELLY
I have said it before murder is always a surprise and
most definitely a shock to the loved ones and acquaintances of the victim. I
believe that most everyone would put murder in that compact box. But where do
we put the murder of a baby? I’m not talking about a late abortion I am talking
about the actual murder…the killing of an innocent baby. I can tell you this if
you know the murdered child, or the family of a murdered baby, the answer to
the question is simple. Pain…agonizing pain, and between sobs the question that
is always asked is…WHY?
The story I am about to tell you began near Alton,
Illinois in June of 1989.
I decided to bring this story to you because it
touched the hearts of folks here in Peoria, Illinois because some of them were
jurors in the trial held right here in River City.
Paula and Robert Sims was just another married couple.
She came from a farm in southern Missouri and Bob worked the nightshift in
Alton, Illinois.
They were no different than the thousands of newly
married, and like the others their lives were ordinary. Then on June 17, 1986
Paula made a call to the local police, screaming into the telephone that a man
had stolen her baby girl. Well, now that is news that will catapult a person
into the spotlight rather quickly.
It was 10:00 that June night and Paula Sims was
watching the news on TV
while her husband was off to work. At that time they
lived in a rural setting in Brighton, Illinois. Paula was stunned senseless as
she saw a man standing in front of her with a masked face and a mean looking
gun in his hand. She had a habit of watching TV in her basement and locked the
rear door only after she was ready to go upstairs to bed. The gunman forced her
to lie on the floor warning her to stay there at least ten minutes. The moment
she heard the door close she got up and raced to check on her baby. Her infant
girl, Lora lei was gone!
We are all aware of the uproar and the publicity
connected with a kidnapping of a child, and this case was no different. The
local press down there in Alton and Saint Louis and surrounding areas raced to
get the story to the public. The first person to be quoted was Paula’s father,
Orville Blew.
“Somebody’s got to be sick to do something like
this or have no feelings at all. It could be somebody
in the market for selling babies or maybe somebody who
lost theirs and wants another.”
Paula and Robert were much too distraught to speak to
the press, but finally
on June 20th Robert appealed to the press.
“They could have stolen anything I have,” he said, standing in his driveway and
pointing toward the house,
“They could have fired me, sent me back to war,
nothing compares with this.”
The couple appeared in newspapers, heads together,
tears on their faces holding up a poster they had made. “Have you seen Lora lei,
abducted
from Brighton home
Tuesday Nite, June 17?”
Seven thousand fliers were sent out by I-Search,
describing little Lora lei
as light-haired and 19 inches long. Five thousand
photos were made up and sent out and within a few days over $8,000.00 were
offered as a reward for information. Authorities made every effort to find the
infant as they waited for a ransom note, but none came.
THE WORST
NEWS POSSIBLE
On June 24, 1986, one week after the baby was
kidnapped the decomposed remains of an infant were found in a deep ravine less
than 150 feet from the Sims home. The bones had been scattered about apparently
from animals and no clothing or anything else was found at the scene. Hospital
x-rays could not reveal whether the bones were those of a boy or a girl, only
that they were human. Were those pathetic remains that of little Lora lei?
The police immediately asked Robert and Paula to take
lie detector tests. Coming out of the police inquiry, the press asked them how
they did.
Robert smiled, “We passed with flying colors.” The
truth was that they had not only not passed with ‘flying colors,’ they had
indeed failed the tests.
What did that mean? Could it be possible that this
nice couple murdered their daughter? For the folks that knew them that thought
was absolutely
ludicrous.
Right after the tests the Sims moved away telling
friends that the pressure on them from the media was just too much…so they
left. A month or so later
Dr. James McGivney, a forensic dentist, told the press
that the remains were those of a thirteen-day-old baby, based on the tooth buds
he found in the jawbone. Later the
police had experts compare the bone marrow and reported that their experts
reported that they were 97.2 percent positive that the baby found in the ravine
was that of Lora lei Sims. Paul and Robert rejected that idea completely. It
was not their daughter, they were sure of that fact. To counter that even more
sophisticated tests were made and the results were that the experts were now
99.75 percent sure that the baby was Lora lei. Remember the sophistication of
today’s DNA tests were yet to come.
The couple then told the press that they had accepted
the death of their daughter and were just barely “Keeping their sanity.”
However, Robert hedged a bit by adding, “But I can’t say, down in my heart, that
I absolutely know it’s her,” The father, whom many suspected, struck out at his
tormentors. “What I can’t believe is how little support we’ve got from the
world in general. We’ve been condemned.”
The family of little Lora lei buried her in Woodland
Cemetery over in Wood River, Illinois just a few miles from where her
grandparents lived. No death
date was carved on the stone because the date is
uncertain. Also, although they buried the remains of the infant, the Sims
family left the cemetery not exactly sure that they had indeed buried Lora lei
Sims.
In March, 1987, the grand jury met to consider the
death of the infant, which
told the reading public that authorities must believe
that the baby was murdered by one or both of her parents. Both Robert and Paula
were asked to appear which they did but they invoked the Fifth Amendment and
did not answer the questions put to them. The public assumed at that point,
since they had flunked the lie detector
tests and refused to answer questions from the grand jury, that they were
guilty of murder. That was how it was then and as the months went on they never
changed their minds. Paul and Robert Sims were guilty of killing their baby…why
aren’t they in jail?
CAN LIGHTINING
STRIKE TWICE?
On February 1, 1988, there were grins on the faces of
hard-luck parents, Robert and Paula Sims. They had a baby boy. The happy
parents then announced to the suspicious world that another child was born to
them thirteen months later, a little girl named Heather. Joy settled over the
distraught parents and even the folks that believed the couple had killed Lora lei
were now willing to give them some space. After all, in spite of the hell they
had gone through they had a boy named Randy and sweet, beautiful Heather to
raise. They would prove they were decent parents given a chance. Interest in
the couple waned and like always life moved on.
And then the impossible happened. On April 29, 1989, a
Saturday at 10:20
P.M., Paula was taking the trash out when she was
accosted by a masked man. The armed man forced her back into the house then
smashed her with some kind of Karate chop across the back of the neck. She lay
there unconscious for as much as forty-five minutes. That’s when Robert
returned from work to revive her and call police. The couple dashed through the
house to check on Randy and Heather. Randy was just fine but Heather was gone!
The news raced through the community like a tornado
and as in the last case, soon was a national story. The doubters quickly said
“I told you so,” and soon the Sims house was the center of crowds and TV
cameras. The folks would buy the first case, well some of them, but not this
one. These two cases were so similar that the people were now positive of the
guilt of the young couple. How could the authorities have allowed this to
happen? They should have had one or both of those people in jail after the
death of Lora lei. That was the sentiment of the folks who had not quite gotten
over the horror of the first case three years previously.
The couple took their only son and raced over to the
Blew’s house to take refuge. People showed up there as well, some carrying
placards, others just stood staring at the house. One lady told the press that
they should not judge these people “Only God can judge them.” The media circus
kicked up a notch when police found pornography in Robert’s garage. There were
soft-porn magazines in his locker, one of them, Abnormal Wife, had a picture of
a naked woman sitting on a human skull. The media took some pains to
inform the people that the police found a picture of
the son in his locker but none of his daughter.
ANOTHER INFANT
BODY
Just four days after the baby’s disappearance
a man was searching a park area near the Mississippi River. He’d often found a
few cans in the trash- cans, and when he saw a large green garbage bag he
immediately opened it. To his utter horror what he saw was not aluminum cans.
No, what he saw was the frozen body of a very small infant! Authorities were
summoned and they soon identified the pitiful remains as those of the missing
infant, Heather Lee Sims. The news bumped the case up to international
coverage, and the media converged once again upon Paula and Robert Sims.
More and more TV cameras were aimed at the couple but
before long they seemed to zero in on Paula Sims alone. After all she was with
the two infants when they were kidnapped, and as far as people were concerned
she was guilty of their murders. Of course the media did not say that but by
their very actions the finger pointing was obvious. A lot of people reduced the
number of suspects to two, and they had already made up their minds which two. They
made it clear that they thought either Paula and Robert did it together or
Paula did it on her own…one or the other.
WOULD THEY
CHARGE PAULA?
The first kidnapping and murder were in 1986, which
cost the life of Lora lei
and then in 1989, the murder of Heather. The
authorities did not charge Robert or Paula for the 1986 murder so what was
different about the 1989 murder? If they had nothing on her then how could they
charge her now? That was the question that bounced around among the people who
followed the Sims case. What were they going to do? In 1986, Sheriff Frank
Yocum
of Jersey
County
Sheriff Yocum expressed his concern over so many
inconsistencies in the case, shaking his head and totally frustrated he let
them be known to the public. He told reporters that the tear in the screen door
where the intruder made his entry was not only too small it was on the wrong
side of the screen. He wondered why neither Robert nor Paula had ever gone on
any of the searches for the bodies. Also the sheriff pondered the fact that no
clothing, no baby clothing was ever found on or near either one of the infant’s
bodies. Despite all of Yocum’s suspicions and hard work there was nothing in
the years between the two cases that ever tipped the scales of justice his way.
Lora lei’s fate remained a deep, dark mystery not only to him but everyone else
as well. Yocum was stunned when he arrived at the Sims house once
again to investigate yet another kidnapping and
another murder. He stood looking at the crying couple. He said he could see
them cry “But I’ve never
been able to put an adjective as to what Paula’s
emotions were that night. To this day I can’t.”
NOW WHAT?
There is no Statute of Limitation on murder. However,
there is on the other charges that the SA could charge Paula with, so with time
running out he did file them. Lee Plummer had Paula arrested and arraigned on
concealing a homicide and three counts of obstructing justice, all in
connection with the death and disappearance of Lora lei Sims. So finally the
mystery lady from La
Plata , population 1,423, was under the jurisdiction of Illinois
The little town she grew up in was known as “The
soybean capital of the
world.” The town is a nice little farm town, it even
has a nine-hole golf course, and most everyone there certainly knew Paula as
the “Pleasant tomboy from Bates Street.” She busied herself taking care of her
disabled brother and never showed any signs of having a bad disposition. The
town had its dark side, as reporters found out when they went there to find out
about Paula, who she was and why she would kill her kids. Reporters said that
at one time there was a sign along Route 63 that read “Nigger don’t let the sun
set on your head in La Plata.” But, hell, that was 1965 a long time ago. Surely folks had changed their
attitude…hopely.
Reporters found the town a bit protective of Paula.
The folks admitted they
never locked their doors, and left their keys in their cars, but those same
folks carried guns in their cars. There was a sizeable marijuana crop there as
well, according to some of the more snoopy reporters. The principal of the
school told reporters that he “Had nothing to say,” and other folks told the
intruders the same thing. Paula’s smiling picture in the 1970 high school book
was proudly shown with the hint that if she went wrong it was after she left La
Plata. Some local folks resented the press calling her a La Plata girl. “She
was born here, she didn’t even graduate high school here.” The reporters never really
got the answers to the “Why” Paula Sims would kill her children, but they
learned a lot about her and reported much of it to their readers.
One interesting thing did pop up from the reporter’s
investigation when she interviewed a high school student that was in school
with Paula. “If anything ever’d come up missing at school, every finger would
point at her. She’d get real paranoid about it. ‘Why do you always say I did
it?’ Paula would ask. “Well because 99 chances out of 100 you did it that’s
why.”
Another young lady that spent some time with Paula
quickly added “she didn’t act
very feminine, she was tall and not much of a figure. She was prone to
fighting…fists and cat fights. She was tough and she didn’t bluff.”
So that’s enough about Paula, what any of that has to
do with why she would kill her kids, is beyond me. Also…keep in mind she was
not even charged with murder when all these interviews took place…but people
love to talk…my how they love to talk.
FINALLY THE CHARGE
IS MURDER
On May 12, Paula was charged with concealing a
homicide and obstructing justice for the death of Loralei. That trial would
take place after the murder charges have been concluded. July 1, the same
charges are filed only this time they are in connection with the death of Heather
Sims. On July 11 Paula Sims is charged with Heather’s murder and this time she
is charged without the possibility of a bond. A major surprise is that the
Madison County judge transferred the trial to Peoria, Illinois because of
pre-trial publicity. Now all the publicity would be generated here in Peoria,
Illinois. Of course that trial will mean a pretty penny for the hotels and
merchants here in town so authorities eagerly awaited the trial.
FROM MADISON COUNTY TO PEORIA
Paula spent her time secluded in her Madison County
Jail, rarely talking to anyone, sitting, reading…staring out into space.
Publicity still surrounded the case and every time a pre-trial motion or
hearing was held, the crowds swarmed and the media frenzy continued. Roadblocks
were put up on the street where the Sims family lived but still the parade of
people going by never stopped. One TV reporter from KMOV-TV said to reporters
that contacted the station by phone “you’d have to be here to see the circus atmosphere.”
What would it be like here in Peoria, Illinois?
A very important decision by the judge in Madison
County ordered that information about the death of Loralei could be used in the
trial of Paula for the murder of her second daughter, Heather Sims. This was
huge as far as the prosecutor was concerned. Just think of it from the juror’s
viewpoint. They sit there and for a few days and they hear that this woman,
according to the prosecutor, killed her first daughter. The judge allowed this
under some section of the law consistent with ‘showing a consistent pattern of
crime.’ It was a devastating ruling, and one that a Peoria jury would get a
chance to listen to. Many lawyers interviewed felt that in the end this just
might be reversible error,
PEORIA, ILLINOIS
1-08-1990
Reporters flocked into Peoria, Illinois where the TV
vans took up valuable
parking spaces, and crowds flooded the courthouse.
That was the scene that cold January morning when the Paula Simses jury waited
in the Jury Commission Room to be called for questioning. This was another one
of those ‘hot tickets’ I told you about, but less spectators would see this
show.
Since so many visiting reporters took the good seats,
and other VIP’s were allowed in, frustration prevailed even among the very
early seat hopefuls.
Judge Matoesian from Madison County would preside and
local reporters quickly told the Peoria readers that Andy Matoesian was a
graduate of the Peoria Barber College. Most folks hoped that the man had also
gone to law school. The media coverage was a blitz not only TV, newspaper and
radio, there were live broadcasts back to the Alton, Illinois area as well. The
death
penalty would be sought by the county’s prosecutor,
William Haine and his two valuable assistants, Kit Morrisey and Donald Weber.
Paula Sims had as her lawyer Donald Groshong, a very competent defense
attorney. The actors were in place, the judge was ready, and the bit players
were waiting to become jurors. Camera…action!
Judge Matoesian questioned 97 jurors himself excusing
many before either side got to talk to them. The questions centered around what
the prospective juror knew about the case and what their views were concerning
the death penalty. It was a long, sometimes boring process, but eventually the
deed was done. The jurors were finally in the box and the alternates were
sitting in ready to take over when the judge asked both sides if they were
ready to go. “Ready your honor” came the answers and the opening statements
were delivered. I can tell you after 22 years of hearing and watching the
beginning of trials I was never able to quiet my heart… it’s better than TV
that’s for sure.
A PARADE
OF WITNESSES
Frank Yocum the Jersey County Sheriff, led by the SA
went through the three years of frustrating investigation in the first murder
and was off the stand before he even got to the second murder. The strategy of
the People was now apparent. For the first three days they put on witness after
witness
who discussed the first death, that of Loralei Sims.
The sheriff told the jury that Paula had a dog, a big, very alert dog, named
Shadow. Neighbors reported to him that not once during the night of the
kidnapping did Shadow bark. Why not? That’s what the prosecutor asked the jury.
How could a man come up into the yard, enter the house and not even cause a
whimper from the dog? Damn good questions?
The eight-men and four-women jury, leaned a bit
forward as the first 16 witnesses, which included investigators, neighbors and
forensic experts,
paraded in front of them. Each brought with them a
piece of the puzzle the prosecutors hoped to fit into the complicated motives
that caused Paula Sims to kill her two beautiful baby girls. Prosecutors even
put on a roommate of Paula’s who had her baby the same day that Paula did. The
lady told the jurors that she heard Paula talking to someone on the telephone.
“I’m sorry I had a little girl,” Paula said to someone on the other end of the
telephone.
By the time the jury had heard from 26 witnesses the
spectators had already made up their mind about Paula Sims. Reporters talked to
a lot of them during the breaks, reporting their comments. “Guilty as sin,” was
the general
consensus. There was also a call-in public poll being
conducted but the results would be published after the trial.
Nurse Diane Seavers testified that in all the time she
saw Robert Sims at the hospital he never once looked at the new baby girl.
State investigators repeatedly told the jury that they did not believe the
kidnapping story and at one time told Paula that to her face. She abruptly got
up and walked out of the room leaving the police looking at each other.
The State put on the physician that did the autopsy on
the body of Heather once they had finally gotten around to the second murder.
There are very few surprises in a murder trial what with all the discovery and
pre-trial motions, but there was in this trial. As the good doctor took the
stand, the defense attorney for Paula Sims led her out of the courtroom. He did
that without explanation, which was his right, but later he told reporters she
did not want to hear the details concerning her beloved daughter’s death. It
was while she was out of the courtroom that Dr. Kay dropped the bomb. Since the
doctor was not only a pathologist, but a neurologist as well, the judge let her
testify beyond the autopsy. She told the jury that in her opinion based on a
degree of medical certainty that she did not believe Paul Sims was knocked
unconscious. She went into an elaborate medical explanation about memory loss
and recovery that probably went over most heads. It was devastating to the
defense and Mr. Groshong did everything he could to keep it out.
“Overruled,” said the judge, “the doctor may
continue.”
After Doctor Mary Kay’s dissertation on retrograde
amnesia was allowed to sink in the prosecution rested its case. The 215
exhibits would fill a damn pickup truck and the testimony from 51 witnesses
that went with them must have jammed the juror’s brains to the limit. Somehow
they had gotten through it, sequestered at the Pere Marquette, herded around
like cattle and now they faced the long anticipated defense. To me it was magic
to watch a jury, and to this day I am amazed that in most cases they got it
right.
ACT TWO: THE
DEFENSE
Of course the defense started during the opening
statements and continued with every witness the People put on the stand. Every
exhibit is subject to objection and every word out of every witness is
scrutinized and often attacked. When the case is finally in the hands of the
defense attorney, many of those very same witnesses are back on the stand. It
is a time consuming, grueling procedure especially when the evidence seems
stacked against the defendant as it was in this case. Donald Groshong was a
master at his craft, and his main task was to show the jury that the State had
no real evidence against his client…they had nothing but circumstantial
evidence and a lot of
Innuendo and gossip.
Robert Sims was not charged with a crime in the murder
of his two daughters. He would be a key defense witness and as it is in all
murder trials the big question was, ‘will the defendant take the stand?’
Several relatives of Paula Sims told the jury that
Robert and Paula loved the baby girls and the idea that either one of them
would harm them was absurd. Linda Condray, a sister-in-law showed dozens of
pictures depicting scenes of love and affection on the part of Paula toward
both the baby girls. She was also very upset that the police had searched her
home some ten miles from the Sims home. She told the jury that she thought the
search was “a bit absurd.” In all the defense put on 18 witnesses that
testified that the children were loved and that they did not show any special
interest in their son. “Robert and Paula loved their kids,” it was that simple.
The spectators were anxious to see what Paula and Robert Sims had to say.
THE INNOCENT
PARENTS
Robert Sims looked over at the jury “I wouldn’t cover
for one minute for anyone that would harm a hair on my children no matter how
much I loved them.” He choked up a bit before he said “I believe Paula
absolutely and she
is a good mother and an excellent wife.” The defense
took Robert through all the accusations the witnesses had testified to and one
by one he denied them.
One important aspect of the testimony from Robert was
that he disagreed with his sister-in-law about what time Paula had visited her
the day of the murder. He told the jury it was ten in the morning and the
sister-in-law said it was three in the afternoon. This was important because
police maintain that it was in the afternoon while Paula was supposed to be
over at the sister-in-law’s home that she removed the body from the freezer and
disposed of it. Robert endured a brutal cross-examination from two of the
prosecuting lawyers.
The shy, withdrawn Defendant, Paula Sims took the
stand. The crowded courtroom was hushed as the soft-spoken woman, now 30 looked
over at her lawyer as he walked up to her. Gently her lawyer led her through
the horrible ordeal of losing her two daughters. He asked question
deliberately, nodding as his client answered. It was a very well rehearsed
sensible examination of an innocent woman.
“I loved my daughters and I had a lot of plans for
them. I wanted to give them these dresses. This dress was mine when I was
fifteen months old and I wanted to give it to Heather. She held up two tiny
dresses for the jury to see. The defense held up a deflated balloon that had
‘It’s A Girl!’ printed on it. Paula sobbed, “we were going to put that in her
room.”
Paula’s testimony went well, she was believable,
answering her lawyer’s question in a straight-forward manner and looking like
the distraught innocent woman that she said she was. The cross-examination was
not so kind and not so forthcoming on the part of the witness. She was at one
point courteous, even kind, but the flip side was anger and resentment. The
prosecutors tore in to her on the discrepancies of her earlier statements and
it was brutal.
The SA questioned her about a visit to a card shop
when she and her husband walked into the store carrying Heather. The SA pointed
a finger at her. “That child was dead wasn’t she? Your baby was dead and you
carried it in there in a blanket to establish an alibi didn’t you?” Paula
bristled
as she yelled back, “I was never in that card shop.”
THE CLOSING
ARGUMENTS
In the ideal world closing arguments should not win a
trial. But we all know better than that. Lawyers are supposed to use the
closing arguments to summarize the evidence garnered from the witnesses. They
are allowed some leeway, and I don’t have to tell you, leeway to a lawyer means
freedom to go off on a rant. Good lawyers are good public speakers and damn
good actors. The closing arguments in this case were dramatic and aggressive.
The urge to object is overwhelming to the opposing lawyers but forcibly subdued
for one simple reason, If one objects…the other will follow suit. After eleven days of testimony three days to
pick a jury, the end was in sight. Hell…get on with it, I’d like to visit my
kids before they graduate from college. That was the sentiment of the jury and
even the press was getting anxious to get home.
The trial was over. After 84 witnesses, and four and
one half-hours of closing arguments, the end was near. The long, sometime
arduous task
by the judge of instructing the jury as to the law can
often empty a courtroom in a hurry. Once the jury is charged, they are sworn in
and from that moment on they are the sole holders of justice. Soon they would
select a foreman and began their deliberations. Would they reach a verdict or
would they become deadlocked? Paula Sims was on trial in Peoria, Illinois
That last day of the trial Paula and Robert Sims ate
lunch together and he stood and watched as guards took her back inside the
courthouse. The judge would now instruct the jury as to the law in the case,
and soon the jury would have the case. The end was near to the case that had
brought as much interest as did the Richard Speck trial twenty-three years
earlier. Would Robert Sims get his wife back or would he lose her forever?
A JUROR’S
WORK IS NEVER
EASY
It was a cold January 30, 1990, the jury had
deliberated for seven hours and
speculation was high. A lot of people indicated to the
press that they assumed the jury would take a couple of hours to find the
defendant guilty. They were certainly surprised how long they had been out and
still no verdict. What was wrong with those people?
The folks in Peoria were also talking about the
closing of Bishop’s Cafeteria after 61 years in business and fretting about the
Varsity Theater shutting its
doors as well. The good news was that the old Apollo
Theater was going to be refurbished and there was talk about the riverfront
project. Other than that, all eyes were on the media for news about the jury.
The jury had gotten the case at 5:30 on Monday, they
had to eat dinner, get settled down, pick a foreman, take a few votes, hell, it
all took time. Once
they did all that they asked the judge for a
transcript of the trial, which of course was not available. They would have to
go by memory, exhibits and notes.
Suddenly the word came that the jury had reached a
verdict and it was
ready to meet with the judge. The moment had arrived.
The courtroom filled up quickly and excitement was in the air. The jury is in
the box…it’s over. GUILTY!
LIFE OR
DEATH?
Thursday 2-2-1990 the jury is back in the box and the
courtroom is once
again filled up for the final phase of People vs Paula
Sims case. This day
Is the second birthday for Paula’s son whom she has
not held since her incarceration. Paula was led into the courthouse dressed in
a long sleeved
V-necked striped sweater. Her hair was long and pulled
back behind her bare ears. Two county officers guided her between them as all
eyes swept over her. She was now the convicted killer of Heather Sims, her
infant daughter. The charges against her concerning Lauralei would be tried in
March. She was now waiting to hear the verdict of life or death against her. At
least that’s what the spectators assumed.
The truth of the matter was simple. Once the jury had
found her guilty they had decided that they would not impose the death sentence
upon her. So the threat of death row was not even to be considered. But many of
the folks that crowded the courthouse that day seemed to be unaware of that.
The judge, after a hearing would decide what the penalty would be. Would it be
life or something less? That is the question that would be answered by Judge Matoesian of Madison County
The judge finally had the decision in his hands. He
looked down at Paula Sims, pausing in thought he said “you will serve your
natural life behind bars.” Sims did not move, showed no signs she even heard
the judge. “That means in plain English that you’re not eligible for parole.”
Only a hand full of spectators heard the final sentence that would bring to
close the trial that had created an uproar for three weeks. The judge then
ordered that Sims be escorted to the Illinois Department of Corrections’
women’s prison in Dwight, Illinois.
That poll I told you about, was finally published in
the Peoria Journal
Star: Of the 2,268 people that responded to
Dial-A-Vote, 2,034 said she was guilty and deserved the death penalty. The
remaining 234 said that she did not deserve the death penalty. Hell, Illinois
is not a state that is quick to execute. Also the means of execution had
changed from the electric chair to lethal injection in 1983. Now after Governor
Ryan signed into law his legislation it will be another fifteen years before
Illinois even gets close to an execution. Have any idea how long ago it was
that Illinois executed a prisoner? Good guess…it was 1962.
So, let’s leave this case with some questions
unanswered. Will Robert Sims eventually be indicted for his part, if any, in
the death of his two baby girls? Will
Paula Sims be sentenced additionally when she is tried for the charges against
her in connection with Laralei’s death? Maybe, if I ever write another book like
Murder In Your Own Backyard, I’ll answer those questions for you.
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