KC-area man convicted of murdering girlfriend, faces charge in inmate’s homicide
A Clay County jury on Thursday found a Lee’s Summit man, who faces charges in another homicide, guilty of murder in the 2014 stabbing death of his girlfriend, according to prosecutors.
Jurors deliberated for about two hours before convicting Marcus Simms, 36, of first-degree murder, armed criminal action and tampering in the April 30, 2014, killing of 31-year-old Michele Boldridge.
Simms’ murder conviction carries a sentence of life in prison. Jurors also recommended sentences of 107 years for the other convictions, according to Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Daniel White.
On the day police found Boldridge’s body, officers were called to a Northland apartment the couple shared off of North Hickory Street when neighbors reported seeing a bloody, naked man running around, according to prosecutors. Neighbors who called 911 said the man claimed someone was trying to kill him.
Officers found blood on the door knob of apartment No. 6. After a maintenance man opened the door, they found Boldridge, who had sustained head wounds. She was also missing an eye, prosecutors said Thursday.
After the killing, Simms drove to a school bus parking lot and approached a bus driver, according to court records. The driver saw blood on Simms’ left hand. She told him to go away.
But Simms yelled: “You don’t understand. Someone just killed my girlfriend!”
Simms ran to the bus building and tried to enter. When he couldn’t, Simms stole another bus driver’s minivan, using keys he found on the floorboard, police said.
Police arrested Simms after he drove the van off the road near Missouri 152 and Interstate 435, prosecutors said.
In a car parked in the area, police found Simms’ DNA as well as a human eyeball, prosecutors said Thursday.
Simms has also been charged with first-degree murder in the 2017 strangulation death of 26-year-old Brian Parisi, who was being held at the Clay County jail on a drug charge. His death was ruled a homicide.
