Morgan Sims, 33, told authorities she was only defending herself against her abusive husband. (Image courtesy of the Collin County Detention Center)
A Texas mother has been charged with murder after authorities say she gunned down her husband at their home last week where their two young children were present.
Morgan Leigh Sims, 33, and her husband, Daray Vontrell Sims, celebrated their seven-year wedding anniversary just weeks before the fatal encounter, according to the Dallas Morning News. After the shooting, arrest affidavits showed Sims told Collin County Sheriff’s deputies that her husband was abusive and that she was only defending herself.
Daray Sims ultimately died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the county medical examiner.
Authorities were called to the couple’s home just after 6:30 Friday evening about a possible domestic disturbance. Someone had called to report that their sister and her husband were “arguing and fighting.” Moments later, emergency dispatchers got a call from Morgan Sims’ mother, claiming her daughter had just shot her husband. Her mother reported she was at the home, along with the couple’s two children, ages 2 and 6.
Affidavits obtained by the Dallas Morning News show paramedics arrived at the home to find Daray Sims face-down on the bathroom floor in “copious amounts of blood.” Sims’ brother told authorities his sister had left the house in a Black Range Rover, which police eventually caught up with several miles down the road. Sims was arrested on the spot.
“When asked what happened, Sims stated that she had ‘been abused, which caused me to defend myself,'” the affidavits read. She refused to say much more, however, and asked for an attorney.
Morgan Sims (right) and her husband Daray Sims has just celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary. (Image courtesy of Facebook)
A police search of Sims’ vehicle recovered a Walther P22 semiautomatic pistol with a live round in the chamber, along with pills believed to be Xanax or Valium and $9,560 in cash, according to a search warrant inventory. Meanwhile, items found inside the couple’s home included one live .22 cartridge, 22 cartridge casings, a bottle of household cleanser, a bag with a sponge and an empty container of disinfecting wipes, among other things.
Court records show that Daray Sims, a standout athlete who played football at Abilene Christian University, was arrested in May 2014 on suspicion of assault-family violence in DeSoto, Texas, where a grand jury failed to indict him.
Morgan Sims has also had run-ins with the law. She was sentenced to a year of probation after she pleaded no contest to one charge of criminal mischief for scratching the paint off several cars with a rock, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Sims remains in the Collin County Detention Center in lieu of $500,000 bond.
