The second day of trial for the suspect accused of shooting and injuring three people at Timberview High School in 2021 adjourned early in the afternoon. Jurors saw new surveillance video from inside the school and a different angled cell phone video of the fight that led to the shooting.
Timothy Simpkins is facing 3 counts of attempted capital murder. Teachers and coaches gave emotional testimony on Monday of what they experienced and witnessed.
On Tuesday the state rested its case after bringing in several witnesses, including crime scene investigators and gun experts. They talked about evidence including the gun used in the shooting, a Glock 21 model .45 caliber pistol and magazine that was recovered at his sister's apartment. Simpkins is accused of going there after the shooting occurred.
The prosecution showed jurors for the first time surveillance video from inside the English hallway of Timberview High School that captured the moments before and after the shooting.
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The victim, Zacchaeus, also known as Zac, Selby, was 15 when he was shot and injured. He's also the person seen in multiple videos fighting with Simpkins while in class.
Selby is seen talking to a girl in the hallway before knocking on his teacher's door to be let into the class he was late to attend.
Charlie Johnson, a former student, took the stand as a witness for the defense and told the courtroom Selby asked her to record a fight.
"He was like, 'Hey could you record this video for me?' I was like, Yeah," said Johnson.
She said she was in the hallway, late to Coach Dean Boyd's class, one of the teachers who helped stop the fight inside the other classroom.
Witnesses have testified that Selby walked past his teacher to go to Simpkins's desk and started fighting.
Johnson told jurors she recorded the entire fight but stopped once Selby started stomping on Simpkins's head.
"He was getting thrown around, it was just too intense," said Johnson who also added that the fight got "too serious."
In the cellphone video, you hear the teacher of the class yelling for help and the hallway surveillance video shows when two coaches, Sarah Herrera and Dean Boyd who testified on Monday, going into the classroom.
They were able to separate the two male teens, but moments later that's when Coach Boyd, another teacher who was shot and students saw Simpkins pull out a gun from his waistband.
"The fight stopped and then Timothy pulled out a gun I just ran, I don't even know what happened after that, I just ran," said Shaniya McNeely who was grazed by a bullet.
When asked by the state if she felt anything, McNeely said, "I was running, it was really fast, I felt a really fast burn that's when I stopped, but a teacher kept telling me, 'We got to go, we got to go," described McNeely.
Johnson, who was asked to record the fight by Selby, almost became a victim herself. The evidence laid out in court showed that one of the bullets went down the hallway hitting a trophy case.
"I felt the bullet go past me and the trophy case broke," explained Johnson who said she too ran down the hallway down the stairwell to get help from the school resource officer.
The surveillance video also captured the moment Selby crawled out of the classroom. Simpkins is seen firing his gun, chasing after Selby who was on the ground and firing a couple more times. Simpkins is seen putting the gun back in his waistband and taking off.
The state is arguing that he became the aggressor because the fistfight was over, but Simpkins' defense team argues that he acted in self-defense.
Before lunch on Tuesday, the defense brought up a concern regarding Selby, who is considered a sworn witness, and accused him of posting to social media news coverage of the trial and a message to one of the witnesses on social media.
The issue was brought up on the record, but while the jurors were out of the courtroom. The defense accused Selby of posting a picture of the defendant, Simpkins in court and putting a caption that said, "Let me get my popcorn and watch this S***"
He did appear before the judge who warned Selby that he could face contempt charges.
The court adjourned early afternoon as the defense said they were waiting on a witness.
Court is expected to resume Wednesday morning at 9 a.m.
