A Tarrant County jury found 19-year-old Timothy Simpkins guilty of attempted capital murder on Thursday for a 2021 Timberview High School shooting that left three injured.
Jurors went into deliberation for more than eight hours Thursday, unanimously reaching their verdict just after 6 p.m. The jury did not find Simpkins guilty of three counts of aggravated assault.
The court heard testimony from Timberview teachers, students and local law enforcement officials about the shooting over the course of the week.
According to witnesses and camera footage, it began with a classroom fight initiated by fellow Timberview student Zacchaeus Selby, then 15, on the morning of Oct. 6, 2021.
Teacher Caleb Pettit was one of the three people hurt in the shooting. He told jurors Monday he went over to help break up the fight when he saw Simpkins pull out a gun from a bag. That's when Pettit said he ran into another teacher's classroom.
"I was shot in my left shoulder," Pettit said. "It broke my scapula, penetrated through my back ribs, went into my lung and lodged itself one millimeter — what I'm told is the width of a dime — above my aortic valve."
Hallway camera footage played for the jury Tuesday shows Simpkins shooting at Selby, who was also attempting to run away.
In addition to Pettit and Selby, then-15-year-old student Shaniyah McNeely was also injured and hospitalized. All have recovered.
Even though no one was killed in the shooting, prosecutors argued Simpkins intended to do so.
Simpkins' lawyers argued he had been bullied and did not intend to kill Selby or anyone else at the school.
They also requested to include self-defense in the jury charge, which Judge Ryan Hill denied.
The sentencing phase of the trial begins Friday at 8:30 a.m.
Got a tip? Email Toluwani Osibamowo at tosibamowo@kera.org. You can follow Toluwani on Twitter @tosibamowo.
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