Chapter 15

• Jurisdiction: United States

Chapter 15 Three Strikes

Slashed to Death

The Willie Haggerty case offers a microscopic view of one of the criminal cases that fell under Washington's "Three Strikes and You're Out" cases. Willie Haggerty brutally stabbed Mildred Simmons to death as she lay on her bed. Mildred Simmons lived in apartment number 422 in Columbia Place Apartments, a senior housing apartment building owned by the Seattle Housing Authority. The housing was restricted to persons sixty-five years and older. Mildred Simmons's son Victor lived with her. On December 8, 1996, Victor Simmons arrived at the apartment. He went to his mother's bedroom and found her lying on the bed with a coat covering her face. When he pulled back the coat, he saw that his mother had been attacked and that the damage to her face was so severe that he could not even recognize her.

The medical examiner later determined that Mildred Simmons had been stabbed thirty times, primarily on the right side of her face. A wound on her neck cut through the trachea and several veins. Several stab wounds went into her lung. Her hands and arms revealed defensive wounds—cuts from her attempts to defend herself with outstretched hands.

Victor Simmons called 911. A short time later, Seattle Police officers arrived, entered the apartment, and found that Mildred Simmons had been stabbed and there was a large amount of blood all over the bed, ceiling, floor, and furniture. She was wearing a nightgown and her underwear had been pulled down to her ankles. On the Simmons' bed were small papers that would normally have been kept in a purse or wallet. Close by on the floor was a blue fanny pack.

Earlier in the day on December 8, Margaret Washington, Willie Haggerty's sister, came to visit their mother Lizzie Haggerty who, like Mildred Simmons, resided at Columbia Place Apartments. Lizzie Haggerty suffered from memory loss and was confined to a wheelchair. Willie Haggerty stayed at the apartment off and on, and he had some clothes there. When Margaret Washington arrived at the apartment, she found her brother Willie. They got into an argument when Margaret Washington refused to give Willie money so he could buy cigarettes and she told him to get a job. Willie burst into anger and began yelling at her. Margaret Washington left.

That evening, Willie called Margaret. Again, he was very angry, and he told her that he was going to beat her up if she came over to the apartment. Margaret called 911.

In response to the 911 call, at around 10:15 p.m., police officers arrived at Lizzie Haggerty's apartment. As they entered the apartment and were going down the hall, they passed Victor Simmons, who had just arrived to check on his mother Mildred Simmons. When the officers arrived at the Haggerty apartment, Lizzie Haggerty answered the door in her wheelchair. After the officers had a brief conversation with Lizzie Haggerty, Willie came walking down the hallway toward the officers and inquired about what was happening. He was wearing a fleece-lined jacket, blue jeans, tennis shoes, and no socks. The officers checked his identification and then left the apartment building.

At approximately 3 a.m., after Mildred Simmons's body had been discovered, the police decided to go to Lizzy Haggerty's apartment to see if Willie was there because they had been informed that Willie knew Simmons. They found him sleeping on the couch in Lizzie Haggerty's apartment, spoke to him briefly, and then left the apartment.

One of the officers, Officer Powell, went to the lobby, which was approximately thirty feet from the Haggerty apartment. He then heard muffled screams coming from the Haggerty apartment. One of the residents who was in the lobby said, "Sounds like Willie is hitting her again." Officer Powell went back toward the Haggerty apartment, where he heard a second scream from within, and he knocked on the door. Willie Haggerty opened the door, and when he did, he appeared agitated and upset.

Officer Powell entered the apartment and spoke to Lizzie Haggerty. He asked her what happened, and after her brief hesitation, she said that her son Willie Haggerty had hit her. She obviously had been crying. She said that Willie Haggerty had struck her because she had allowed the officers into the apartment.

When the police arrested Willie for the assault, he asked the officer to bring some of his clothing. He pointed to some socks, a hat, shirt, coat, and gloves. Officer Powell took Willie to the Seattle Police Department's south precinct and placed him in a holding cell. The officer noticed an abrasion on the defendant's right hand and possible blood on his ankle. When his clothes were examined, there appeared to be a reddish stain on the gloves.

When the police investigated Mildred Simmons's apartment, they found a 22-ounce bottle of malt liquor, a cigarette butt on the floor of the bedroom, and another cigarette butt in the toilet bowl. Burnt wooden match sticks were found in the bedroom. Neither Victor Simmons nor his mother Mildred smoked.

On the following day, December 9, 1996, the Seattle Police Detectives with a search warrant in hand searched Lizzie Haggerty's apartment. They found two bloody shoes in a trash container, numerous wooden match sticks, malt liquor bottle caps, GPC menthol cigarette butts, and an empty package of GPC menthol cigarettes. Willie Haggerty's sister Margaret Washington stated that her brother smoked and that he had wooden matchsticks on the day of the murder. Later, Willie admitted to the police that he smoked GPC menthol cigarettes.

The search warrant also authorized the police to obtain a blood sample from Willie Haggerty. After they had drawn the blood, Haggerty said that he wanted to talk about what happened. Haggerty gave the detectives about an hour-long tape-recorded statement. He denied killing Mildred Simmons. He said the crime was not his style—"His style was 'man-on-man,' 'knock him down,' 'Bam Bam.'"

Willie Haggerty claimed that when he entered Mildred Simmons' apartment, she was sitting upright on her bed, and as he approached her, he felt something hitting his pants that he thought was blood. He insisted that he tried to call for help but that her telephone did not work. He said Mildred Simmons then fell over, and he became scared, and left the apartment, headed to his mother's apartment where he encountered several police officers at her door. He said he then entered his mother's apartment, placed his bloody shoes in the garbage and his bloody pants behind the dresser.

Based on this new statement, the police obtained a second search warrant for Lizzy Haggerty's apartment. At the apartment, they recovered the defendant's blood-stained white pants stuffed behind furniture in the living room.

Trial

Willie Haggerty was charged with first-degree murder. The case went to trial in the courtroom of King County Superior Court Judge James Street. Seattle Police Homicide Detective Mike Ciesynski, who had investigated the case, sat next to me at the counsel table...