Heather Sims found guilty of voluntary manslaughter

Heather Causey Sims was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter by a jury after two weeks of trial in an Horry County courtroom, and sentenced to 25 years, which was suspended to 10 years with five years probation.

The jury came to that decision about 7 p.m. Friday after deliberations began around 2:30 p.m. that afternoon.

Sims, 33, of Conway was charged with murder after Horry County authorities found her husband, 35-year-old David Sims, dead from a single gunshot wound to the chest at their home on Old Reaves Ferry Road on Aug. 11, 2013 after the couple fought, and she claimed self defense.

Circuit Court Judge Cordell Maddox delivered the sentence after David Sims’ family and Heather Sims’ family and friends spoke.

David Sims’ mother, Margaret Sims, spoke first and tearfully asked that the judge dole out the maximum sentence.

“When she took our son’s life, she took ours as well,” she said. “We’re asking you give her the maximum sentence for such a heinous crime.”

David’s sister and father also spoke and asked the judge to deliver the maximum sentence.

Destiny Studinski, David Sims’ sister, told the court how close she was with her brother and how much her young son missed his uncle.

“David was my only brother. We were so close. The whole family always was,” she said.

David Sims senior, David Sims’ father, spoke about the loss of his son and how deeply it affected him and his family, especially David’s mother who keeps a total of 38 pictures of their son throughout the house, he said.

Sandra Causey, Heather Sims’ mother, spoke after David Sims family, and begged for leniency from the judge for her daughter.

“She has always been a good person and still is,” Causey said.

She said Heather Sims was a good mother and asked for mercy for Heather Sims and her son.

“John David [Heather and David Sims’ 2-year-old son] needs her, and we need her,” her mother said.

Sims’ long-time pastor, a childhood friend, and a woman from the hospital where Sims worked all asked the judge for leniency before Sims herself spoke and asked the judge for mercy for her son’s sake.

“I’m not a violent person. But my child is now fatherless and motherless, and I just ask that you be lenient,” Sims asked the judge through tears.

During sentencing, the judge acknowledged the clear animosity the two families showed toward one another and urged them to reconcile for the sake of the couple’s son.

“You better unite for this child or you’re going to regret it,” he said. “That’s all I can say.”

The trial began with jury selection on Nov. 9 and spilled over into the following week. Proceedings often stretched late into the night that second week as prosecutor Nancy Livesay rested the state’s case Tuesday and Morgan Martin, Sims’ defense attorney began presenting on Wednesday in the Horry County courtroom.

The trial wrapped with closing arguments on Friday morning, and Morgan delivered his statement, which lasted more than an hour, before Livesay spoke for about an hour.

Martin asserted the state has only raised questions in the case and not proven facts, and said Sims killed her husband in self defense.

“She shot because she was scared. In that moment self preservation kicked in,” Martin said.

He closed by talking about the stressfulness of the past two years since the shooting.

“She [Sims] has persevered because she is innocent and she knows she is innocent,” Morgan said.

When Livesay spoke she opened by saying: “What’s important are the facts. Nothing but the facts.”

Livesay said all the facts in this case point to murder.

Livesay said Sims’ actions after the shooting showed she was trying to cover up a murder.

This story was originally published November 20, 2015 at 7:39 PM with the headline "Heather Sims found guilty of voluntary manslaughter."