Ashley Morrison: Law of Parties, Reversal, and Plea Deal

The Ashley Morrison murder case is a Texas prosecution in which Morrison, then a teenager, was convicted of murder under the state’s law of parties for her role in the December 2014 killing of 66-year-old Annie Lois Sims of Powderly, Texas. Morrison did not fire the fatal shots; her boyfriend, 16-year-old Christian Sims, did. Prosecutors argued Morrison knew of his plan and helped him carry it out. After a first conviction, a reversal on appeal, and a guilty plea on retrial, she is again serving a 30-year sentence.¹

The Killing of Annie Lois Sims

One week before Christmas 2014, Annie Sims was found shot to death on the back porch of her home in Powderly. She had been killed by multiple gunshot wounds. Her vehicle, purse, credit cards, and at least one handgun were missing.²³

Investigators quickly focused on the victim’s grandson, Christian Sims, and his girlfriend, Ashley Morrison. Both teenagers were arrested that same night at a Motel 6 in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, after fleeing in Annie Sims’s stolen car, and were returned to Lamar County on December 23, 2014.²⁴ On arrest, Christian Sims told officers Morrison “had nothing to do with it. It was all me.”³

Charged Under the Texas Law of Parties

Prosecutors did not accept that account. They charged Morrison with murder under Texas’s law of parties, which allows a person to be held criminally responsible for another’s conduct if she acted with intent to assist and knew of the other’s criminal plan. The State alleged Morrison knew in advance that Sims intended to rob and kill his grandmother and that she helped him carry it out.⁵

The case was entirely circumstantial. Morrison was not present when Annie Sims was shot; according to the appellate record, she was at the home of Sims’s aunt at the time. The jury’s task was to decide whether she was an active participant in a plan or a bystander to her boyfriend’s violence.⁵

The First Trial and 30-Year Sentence

An initial proceeding in Lamar County ended in a mistrial after First Assistant District Attorney Jill Drake and District Attorney Gary Young concluded the jury pool was too small and potential jurors were not impartial. The case was moved to Tyler.⁶ On July 27, 2017, a Smith County jury found Morrison guilty of murder and sentenced her to 30 years in prison, with 15 years required before parole eligibility.⁷

Why the Conviction Was Reversed

On March 27, 2019, the Sixth District Court of Appeals in Texarkana reversed Morrison’s conviction and ordered a new trial. In Morrison v. State, No. 06-17-00159-CR, the court found the State had violated her Sixth Amendment right to counsel in a way it called “fundamental error.”⁵

The violation involved defense billing records. Because Morrison was indigent, her court-appointed lawyer submitted itemized billing statements to the district clerk’s office to be paid. The appellate court found those records went well beyond routine time entries and effectively disclosed defense strategy, attorney work product, and confidential attorney-client communications. Prosecutors reviewed them.⁵

From one entry, the State built a theory that Morrison had written a letter to her mother from jail confessing her involvement, and that defense counsel had retrieved it. At trial, prosecutors questioned Morrison’s mother in a way that suggested to the jury such a letter existed and that the defense was hiding it. A prosecutor acknowledged to defense counsel that the billing records were the source of the theory. No proof of the letter was ever produced.⁵

The court concluded the tactic invited jury speculation about a nonexistent confession in a wholly circumstantial case, and worked “to the substantial detriment” of Morrison. It also found her attorney, Michael D. Mosher, had rendered ineffective assistance by creating unnecessarily detailed billing records and failing to protect them or seek a remedy after learning the State had reviewed them. Going forward, the court held, prosecutors have an “affirmative obligation” to refrain from reviewing indigent defense billing records, regardless of whether they were publicly filed or whether privilege had been waived. The court ordered suppression of the billing records and any evidence derived from them, but denied Morrison’s request to dismiss the indictment, sending the case back for a new trial instead.⁸

The Guilty Plea and a Second 30-Year Sentence

In November 2019, before 62nd District Judge Will Biard, Morrison pleaded guilty to murder rather than face a full retrial. Under the plea agreement, her sentence would fall between five and 30 years, with a jury deciding the exact term.1

At the punishment hearing on March 4, 2020, in Lamar County, defense attorney Heath Hyde called clinical psychologist Dr. Rycke Marshall, who testified that her 2015 assessment found Morrison “naive, vulnerable and easily manipulated” by Sims. Hyde argued Morrison had not pulled the trigger and had been exploited by her boyfriend, and asked the jury for the five-year minimum.¹

On cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney Jill Drake confronted Dr. Marshall with something in her own report: Morrison had told the psychologist that, while still at her house, she knew Sims was going to kill his grandmother. “The state didn’t have that information,” Drake told the jury; it had come from the defense’s own expert. Drake argued Morrison had known in advance, chosen to participate, and then lied about her role. She called the killing “cold-blooded” and “senseless.”¹

The jury deliberated for less than 30 minutes and returned the maximum, 30 years, the same term she had received at her first trial. Annie Sims’s sister, daughter, and husband Mike Sims then gave victim impact statements.¹

Morrison later spoke about her role on Netflix’s I Am a Killer, in the Season 5 episode “Lost Innocence,” which premiered on October 16, 2024. “I was guilty. And I am guilty,” she said. “I had a choice. I could have made the choice to try to stop him. I could have made the choice to get help.”⁹

Christian Sims’s Separate Case

Christian Sims was charged with murder for the shooting. In October 2016, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 35 years. His plea preserved the right to appeal the trial court’s denial of his suppression motions, and in July 2017 the Texarkana Court of Appeals affirmed.²³ In the Netflix documentary, Sims claimed he had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of his grandmother; prosecutors interviewed for the episode said that allegation was never raised at trial.¹⁰

Where the Case Stands Today

Morrison is incarcerated at the William P. Hobby Unit in Falls County, Texas, and is eligible for parole in 2029. Christian Sims is serving his 35-year sentence at the O.L. Luther Unit in Navasota, Texas, with parole eligibility in 2032.¹⁰

1
The Paris News. Lamar County Jury Gives Ashley Morrison 30 Years Imprisonment Sentence Again in Murder Case
2
KXII. Lamar County Man Pleads Guilty to Killing Grandmother, Sentenced to 35 Years
3
FindLaw. Sims v. State
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eExtra News. I Am a Killer Netflix Season 5
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FindLaw. Morrison v. State
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The Paris News. Murder Trial Continues
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myparistexas.com. Texarkana Court of Appeals Reverses Ashley Morrison Murder Conviction
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FindLaw. Morrison v. State>
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People. I Am a Killer Season 5 Where Are the Killers Now
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Screen Rant. Netflix I Am a Killer Documentary Crimes Explained