Horry County woman challenging murder charge under S.C. Stand Your Ground law

An Horry County woman is challenging a murder charge, saying she was protecting herself when she shot and killed her husband inside their home in 2013.

In a recorded interview with police and the 911 call to emergency dispatchers, Heather Sims was heard saying her husband, David Sims Jr., came at her with a knife and she shot him inside the couple’s bathroom of their home on Old Reaves Ferry Road.

The recordings were played Monday for Circuit Court Judge Cordell Maddox, who is presiding over the hearing under the state’s Stand Your Ground law. It allows for the use of deadly force against an intruder or attacker in a person’s home, business or vehicle.

The law also states such force is allowed if the person is not doing something illegal or to prevent death, great bodily injury or during the commission of a violent crime. According to the law, a person, other than a law enforcement officer, who uses such deadly force is immune to criminal prosecution and civil action.

Heather Causey Sims, 34, was charged with murder after Horry County authorities found her husband, 35-year-old David Sims found dead from a single gunshot wound to the chest at their home on Aug. 11, 2013

Heather Sims suffered a puncture wound to her side and was taken to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center for treatment.

On Monday, Nancy Livesay, who is prosecuting the case for the 15th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, said the state’s Stand Your Ground law “excludes people living in the same residence.”

“Stand your ground does not ever apply when we have a domestic situation in the home,” Livesay said.

Heather Sims’ attorney, Morgan Martin, said his client was entitled to the hearing because she was in fear for her life.

“She believed she was in danger of death or serious bodily injury or a violent crime was going to be committed against her,” Martin said.

Maddox ruled there was a need for the Stand Your Ground hearing. He then held what is called a Jackson-Denno hearing in which her interview with detectives was played to determine if she was coerced into speaking to authorities.

Maddox ruled her statement was given “freely and voluntarily made. That statement comes in,” he ruled.

In the hour and 40 minute recorded interview with police at the hospital, Heather Sims tells detectives that her husband tried to argue with her during the day when they went to lunch and to a department store in the North Myrtle Beach area before returning home with their then-4-month-old son.

She said the couple then argued inside their bathroom about an appointment they had with a marriage counselor. Heather Sims said her husband was working on their toilet with a tool, which was either pliers or a wrench, and a kitchen knife.

Heather Sims said she had moved the couple’s 9-mm handgun to the top drawer of the bathroom to be out of reach of their son.

“He was in my face and I was starting to feel threatened,” Heather Sims said in the recording. “I took it [the gun] out and had it in my hand and said ‘David stop it.’ . . . I saw him coming toward me and I just shot. I knew he had a knife or a wrench. I’m not good with the names of tools.”

She said David Sims swung the knife at her and she suffered a puncture wound to her side at some point.

“I said ‘calm down David. What are you doing’ I said ‘please stop’ and that’s when I knew the gun was there and I went for it,” Heather Sims said in the recording. “It all happened so fast.”

Later in the recording, she said, “I should’ve just left. I was trying to get him to calm down. I thought if I grabbed that [the gun] that he would calm down.”

Heather Sims told police she did not run because she was afraid if she turned her back on her husband he would catch her and stab her.

When Horry County police arrived they found the small kitchen knife in David Sims’ hand, according to a police report.

In the 911 call to dispatchers, which was played during the Stand Your Ground hearing, Heather Sims said “he had it in his hand and he was coming at me . . . Oh my God, I didn’t mean to do this. I’m scared. I was scared I did not mean to do this.”

She told dispatchers she was performing CPR because David Sims did not have a pulse and was not breathing.

It took authorities 24 minutes to arrive at the home and Heather Sims kept the phone on speaker until her father, Ronnie Causey, arrived at the home and he took the phone and spoke to dispatchers.

Martin told Maddox he plans to call several witnesses when the hearing continues Tuesday.

This story was originally published July 6, 2015 at 8:18 PM with the headline "Horry County woman challenging murder charge under S.C. Stand Your Ground law."