BURLINGTON — A federal trial against a man accused of kidnapping a woman and her son in 2019 appears close to jury deliberations this week, after both sides in the case finished presenting evidence on Monday.
The trial in U.S. District Court in Burlington against Everett Simpson, who is facing two counts of kidnapping and a charge related to a stolen vehicle, started last week after delays resulting from Covid-19. The jury trial was originally scheduled for March 2020.
After Simpson faced questions on the stand Monday afternoon, Judge William Sessions excused the jury for the night, scheduling closing arguments for Tuesday morning and setting up a likely scenario that jury begins deliberations later that day. Simpson is representing himself in court, aided by a federal public defender.
Prosecutors allege in a criminal complaint filed in federal court that in January 2019, Simpson left the substance use treatment facility Valley Vista in Bradford, stole a vehicle and drove to a mall in Manchester, New Hampshire, where he allegedly abducted a 23-year-old woman and her 4-year-old son in her vehicle and drove to Vermont.
After driving around to search for his estranged wife in the Upper Valley, Simpson brought the woman and child to a hotel in White River Junction and raped the woman, the complaint alleges. He left in her vehicle and was later arrested in Pennsylvania.
Simpson was charged with rape separately in Vermont Superior Court. He has not entered a plea in that case while the federal case is pending. Later in 2019, the state of Vermont settled a lawsuit from the New Hampshire woman and agreed to pay her $400,000. The suit argued that the state did not do enough to find Simpson after he fled the treatment center.
On Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Lasher questioned Simpson on the stand. Simpson did not dispute some facts of the case. He admitted to leaving Valley Vista, stealing vehicles, driving to New Hampshire and returning to Vermont with the woman. But Simpson claimed he had previous communications with the woman, had arranged to meet and that the sex was consensual.
The woman, who testified in the case last week, maintains she was taken against her will.
Simpson said he was upset because he thought his wife was cheating on him. He admitted trying to make as many as 50 calls to his wife’s phone on a phone he found in a van he stole.
Later during questioning, Lasher asked if Simpson was feeling “unstable” that day.
“Yeah, I would say so,” Simpson said. “I was definitely not in the right mind.”
If convicted by the jury, Simpson faces up to life in prison.
