ALICE WEISS MURDER TRIAL ON DEC 11:
IN BID FOR US SENATE SEAT, FORMER MISSOURI AG ERIC SCHMITT ARRESTED INNOCENT SENIOR 17 YEARS AFTER MURDER
After attempting to kill his mother numerous times, Eric Simms was removed from her home with the help of her niece, Alice Weiss, who filed a Protection Order. Twelve days later, Eric reported to the police that Alice had confessed to him her guilt in the unsolved cold case of Jim Summers’ murder. This was ten years after the crime, and as It was obvious to the police that Eric’s motive was revenge, they took no action on his accusation at the time.
The murder
Jim Summers was murdered outside the garage where he stored parts for the six vintage cars he was restoring. The victim lived in rural Jefferson County, Missouri (south of St. Louis) with his partner, Alice Weiss. They had met at work in the Information Technology Department at MU-St. Louis. Thousands of dollars of car parts and personal objects were stolen, but police did not investigate the theft, look into a recent threat to Jim, inspect the grounds for other clues, or check phone records, and the case remained unsolved. In 2021, seventeen years after the murder, Alice Weiss was charged.
The accuser
Eric Simms is Alice Weiss’ first cousin, son of her paternal aunt. Addicted to alcohol and drugs and diagnosed many years earlier with a delusional mental disorder, Eric has a 20-year police record of violations and charges ranging from rape and assault to multiple DUIs. In 2014, when he was 56 years old, unemployed, and living with his 90-year-old mother Irene, he attempted to kill her several times in order to inherit her house. On his last attempt, witnessed by Irene’s grandson, Eric knocked her unconscious. Alice Weiss filed a Protection Order for her Aunt Irene and had him removed from her house. Irene was hospitalized, permanently incapacitated, and eventually died from her injuries.
Six days after police executed the Protection Order and removed Eric from his mother’s house, and ten years after the murder, he told the Jefferson County Sheriff that Alice had confessed her guilt to him. It was obvious to the police that Eric’s motive was revenge, and the police took no action on his accusation at the time.
The accused
In 2021, at the time of her arrest, Alice Weiss was a disabled senior who from her wheelchair dedicated her retirement years to community volunteerism, fostering sick animals, registering new voters and helping handicapped seniors access their social security and veteran’s benefits. The police said she was arrested because of “new evidence" - the new evidence being Eric Simms’ false statement made seven years earlier in 2014. While incarcerated without chance of bail, she was refused food and medications prescribed by her physicians.
Why did the Missouri Attorney General dig up a 17-year-old ‘cold case’?
Missouri Senator Roy Blunt (Republican) announced his retirement in 2021, and his seat was up for re-election in 2022. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt (Republican) wanted Blunt’s Senate Seat, but he needed more media attention in 2021 to raise his poll numbers. In order to appear ‘tough on crime’ and win votes and campaign donations, Schmitt took the extremely unusual step of holding a press conference the day after Alice Weiss was charged with murder to announce that he had solved a 17-yr-old old cold case – that of Jim Summers’ murder. Attorney General Eric Schmitt wanted to benefit politically from the false arrest of an elderly and innocent woman - Alice Weiss.