LIBERTY — The sister of the man on trial for shooting and burning an Amite County resident looked her brother in the eye and told the court on Tuesday that she saw him shoot her former father-in-law.
Jerry Wayne Simmons died on Oct. 19, 2006, after being shot at his home on Hamp Lea Road near Liberty. On Oct. 20, Simmons’ remains were found in his Chevrolet pickup truck, which had been burned on Church Road in Pike County.
Bobbie Ravencraft Miller was the last witness for the prosecution to take the stand Tuesday in the opening day of the trial against her brother, Buddy John “B.J.” Ravencraft, 27. He is charged with murder and two counts of grand larceny.
Miller pleaded guilty in Amite County Circuit Court earlier this year to accessory after the fact of murder. Judge Forrest “Al” Johnson sentenced Miller to five years in jail, suspended, with credit for time served, plus probation. She was ordered not to have any contact with the Simmons family and agreed to testify against her brother in the plea deal.
Miller, questioned by assistant district attorney Debbie Blackwell, said Ravencraft attacked the 61-year-old Simmons when Ravencraft learned that Miller was having a sexual relationship with Simmons.
Miller, who had been married to Simmons’ stepson, Stoney Jones, was living with Simmons, along with her two young sons after her divorce. Miller said her relationship with Simmons became sexual after Simmons’ wife left him.
“I would listen to him cry,” she said, adding that Simmons asked her to move in with him.
She said their sexual encounters just evolved and that Simmons took a Viagra pill each week.
Miller said she and Simmons and Ravencraft were drinking beer and tequila on the night of Simmons’ death. Miller said that when Simmons came home that night, she asked him if her brother, who had been there for several days, could stay one more night.
Simmons agreed but said Ravencraft would have to leave the next day. She said Simmons, who always carried a gun when he left the house, laid his .380-caliber automatic pistol on the piano when he got home.
Miller said she told her brother about her sexual relationship with Simmons earlier that day.
“I told him me and Grandpa had a relationship, and he told me I was a disgrace to the Ravencraft name,” Miller said.
Miller said Simmons asked her that night if they could have sex even though her brother was in the house.
“I told him it was OK,” she said, adding that he then took a Viagra pill.
The conversation between Simmons and Ravencraft began to heat up, Miller said, after Ravencraft began drinking.
“B.J. was being sarcastic,” Miller said, adding that her brother was upset about something.
“The next thing I know, he’s picking on Grandpa about his gray hair,” Miller said. “He was trying to pick a fight.”
Miller said Simmons commented that Ravencraft couldn’t read. And she said Ravencraft took a comment Simmons made about their sick father the wrong way.
Miller said she then got up to go into the kitchen.
“Grandpa stood up, and B.J. grabbed him from behind, around his neck, and choked him to the floor. I heard his neck pop, I thought B.J. broke his neck,” Miller said.
Miller said she threw a glass of water at her brother to “get him off Grandpa.”
Miller said she “freaked out” and called her boyfriend, Russell Lovett, and told him “B.J. had hurt Grandpa.” She said Lovett advised her to get out of the house.
When Ravencraft learned she had called Lovett, she said he “snatched the phone out of the wall.”
She said she collected her bags and was going to leave the house and meet Lovett in the driveway as he asked her to do. Before leaving, Miller said she saw Ravencraft put a pillow over Simmons and shoot him.
Miller testified that she, Lovett and Ravencraft left the house in separate vehicles, with Ravencraft driving Simmons’ truck.
She said Lovett told Ravencraft, “You know you need to go back and get rid of the evidence.”
Miller said Lovett told Ravencraft to go back to the house and get Simmons’ body.
“I saw (Ravencraft) come out of the barn with a gas can,” Miller said. “Then everybody left.”
The three drove to Church Road in Pike County, where Miller said Ravencraft removed several guns from the truck — guns that were stolen from Simmons’ home.
After the truck caught fire, Miller said Ravencraft got into the car with her. “He smelled like gas.”
She said he waited to see the truck blow up. Lovett and Miller then took Ravencraft to the home of Brian Knight in Magnolia, where Ravencraft was later discovered by law officers and taken into custody.
Miller said Ravencraft told Lovett, “You don’t know me, Russell, and you’ve never seen me before.”
She said Ravencraft warned Lovett that if he told anybody about the crime, he would kill him, too.
But during cross-examination, Ravencraft’s attorney, Gus Sermos, questioned Miller about Lovett’s motive in helping Ravencraft.
Sermos noted that Simmons didn’t like Lovett and had taken out a restraining order against Lovett, preventing him from coming onto his property.
“Why did Russell care about B.J.?” Sermos asked. “He didn’t even know him. … Russell had the perfect out. Why did you help get rid of the body?”
“I freaked out,” Miller said. “I don’t know why I didn’t call the police. I was too shook up to ask (Lovett). … I asked B.J. to leave. He didn’t want to go.”
Sermos asked Miller why she brought her brother, whom she testified was a mean drunk, into her home environment.
“I was drinking, Grandpa was drinking. We all were drinking,” she said. “He was a good man. He never would hurt anybody, drinking or not.”
Also taking the stand Tuesday were:
• Pike County sheriff’s investigators Davis Haygood and James Sparacello, who testified about finding the burned truck and trying to identify both the body and the truck on Church Road. Haygood also said the sheriff’s department received a call that Ravencraft was at Knight’s home in Magnolia, and that Knight told officers that Ravencraft had come into the home with guns and “said he killed somebody.” Haygood said officers found Ravencraft underneath Knight’s home, and found Simmons’ pistol in the house underneath some clothes.
• Stacy Smith with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations, who processed the crime scene on Church Road.
• Robert Newton, Simmons’ stepson, who testified that after being contacted by law officers about their suspicions that his father was dead, he left his job as a corrections officer in Yazoo City to check out Simmons’ home. Newton said he found blood in the home and signs of unusual activity, then left and called authorities.
• Dr. Steven Hayne, a state forensic pathologist, who testified that he examined Simmons’ remains and determined that he died of a gunshot wound, not by fire. Hayne ruled the death a homicide.
• Pike County Coroner Percy Pittman, who said he examined Simmons’ body at the crime scene, and stayed there until Simmons’ remains were taken to the state crime lab in Jackson.
The trial against Ravencraft is expected to wrap up today, with DA Ronnie Harper calling two or three more witnesses before the defense presents its case.
Ravencraft also faces charges in Pike County in connection with the Simmons case. He, along with Miller and Lovett, were charged with third-degree arson, conspiracy to commit arson, desecration of a human corpse and conspiracy to commit desecration of a human corpse. Ravencraft also was indicted for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Lovett was scheduled to go on trial this week in Amite County as well, but Judge Johnson said he severed their cases. Lovett will go on trial later.
