A Purvis woman sentenced to life for locking her boyfriend’s body in a freezer has had her motion to appeal her conviction denied by a Mississippi court.
41-year-old Samantha Simmons was accused of tying Thomas Burns’ body with zip ties and a belt before padlocking him in a freezer in 2018.
The two had been living together at Burns’ house after meeting several months prior, with neighbors later raising suspicions when a truck was seen hauling several pieces of furniture from his residence. Police were later notified after Burns’ older brother, Kenneth, found his body in a freezer padlocked by Simmons.
Simmons was sentenced to life with an additional 20 years being tacked on for first-degree murder and stolen property in 2022. She is currently being held at the Delta Correctional Facility, which she was transferred to in September 2023.
Since then, Simmons has filed a motion in the Mississippi Court of Appeals, arguing that the “state’s evidence only proves that [she] took advantage of Thomas’ death, [but] the evidence does not support a conclusion, beyond a reasonable doubt, that [she] killed Thomas.”
Judge Latrice Westbrooks handed down an opinion on behalf of the appeal judges on Tuesday stating that the state has provided more than enough evidence to prove that Simmons killed Burns.
“We acknowledge that the evidence in this case is circumstantial. However, ‘direct evidence is unnecessary to support a conviction so long as sufficient circumstantial evidence exists to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,’” Westbrooks wrote. “Here, sufficient circumstantial evidence existed to establish that Simmons was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”
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