Maricopa County Sheriff’s detectives are transporting a New York man, David Lee Simpson, into the custody of Sheriff Joe Arpaio after his arrest in Bath, New York for stalking and threatening to kill two nationally known TV anchor women.
After a five week long investigation, Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies now have in custody Simpson, age 48, who was indicted last week by a grand jury here in Phoenix on charges of stalking and computer tampering. He was arrested in New York by Village of Bath Police and Maricopa County Sheriff’s detectives. Simpson has waived extradition and will be brought to the Maricopa County Jail on Wednesday afternoon.
Arpaio would not reveal the names of the two anchors because Turner Broadcasting, requested that they not be publicly identified. According to Arpaio one works out of Atlanta and the other out of New York. Turner Broadcasting owns CNN and HLN.
The investigation surrounding Simpson (DOB 12/28/64) began in June after he allegedly made several postings against the two female anchors on Twitter. Simpson, apparently infatuated with convicted murderer Jodi Arias, became infuriated by the way the two female anchors covered the trial. The threats were primarily made on Twitter before and after the months-long murder trial.
Among his many tweets pertaining to the Arias trial were threats to strap the commentators to a ‘tree naked and leave them to suffer all night’ and then ‘slit their throats.’ Simpson also allegedly told a co-worker that he wanted to hang one of the TV commentators by her feet and ‘gut her like a deer.” Simpson named and called out his intended victims which also included a Phoenix woman who defended the commentator’s coverage of the trial on Twitter.
According to Sheriff’s detectives, Simpson quit his job last week as a front desk employee in an auto repair shop in Bath, allegedly telling his employers that he was leaving town. His car was subsequently stopped by local police as he was heading south. A vehicle search conducted on Simpson’s car found that he was in possession of several guns, shotgun ammunition, hand-cuffs, zip-ties, binoculars, a knife and a police radio. Detectives also found a receipt to a recently purchased shotgun. The shotgun has not been located.
Also found in the car were newspaper clippings related to the Newtown, Connecticut school massacre, and the shootings of four firemen in Webster, New York who were responding to a fire call. Also found inside the vehicle was a printout from a local Arizona news website about the story of a woman arrested by Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies on charges of bestiality.
Arpaio, who was as a guest on the news programs anchored by both victims, says threats against media personalities have too often had tragic results.“Threats against anyone have to be taken seriously,” Arpaio says. “Media personalities are frequent targets and because of their high visibility, they are particularly vulnerable. A few in the past have been stalked and murdered. “This suspect was on his way south with enough weapons in his car to do serious harm to someone. Fortunately, we acted quickly and in so doing, were able to stop him before anything could transpire.”
Arpaio says Simpson is charged with 3 counts of Computer Tampering, class 5 felonies, and 2 counts of Stalking, class 3 felonies. He is scheduled to be transferred to Phoenix under guard by Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Wednesday, July, 24, 2013.