A Colorado woman who was “paranoid” about child molesters was sentenced to life in prison after shooting a wanted sex offender and dumping his remains in a drainage ditch.
Deka Simmons, 38, was the subject of an intense investigation dating back to April 2022, when she was arrested for the murder of Daxcimo Ceja, 48, in Colorado Springs.
On Wednesday, he learned that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars without the possibility of parole.
In her closing arguments, prosecutor Sharon Flaherty said Simmons killed Ceja because he was a sex offender who had a relationship with a 17-year-old girl when he was 25, according to the court. Colorado Springs Gazette.
Deka Simmons, 38, was the subject of an intense investigation dating back to April 2022, when she was arrested for the murder of Daxcimo Ceja, 48, in Colorado Springs.
When the 38-year-old woman killed her victim, she had a warrant out for her arrest for failing to register as a sex offender.
Flaherty explained in court how intense Simmons’ contempt for pedophiles was.
“She has an unbridled hatred for anyone who abuses a child,” the prosecutor said, adding that this feeling of hatred was a “fixation” and a “paranoia.”
According to authorities, Simmons shot Ceja in a garage, dismembered her body and stored it in a freezer before transporting her remains in a pickup truck.
When the 38-year-old was arrested in April 2022, the whereabouts of the victim’s body remained unknown.
Prosecutor Sharon Flaherty said Simmons killed Ceja because he was a sex offender who had a relationship with a 17-year-old girl when he was 25.
Authorities were able to link the brutal murder to Simmons thanks to DNA they recovered from blood in the garage, which had more than 300 blood stains.
In October 2023, police found Ceja’s body in a drainage ditch near the 500 block of W. Polk Street, following an anonymous tip about human remains in a bag.
According to the testimony of the process, which is reported by the Colorado Springs GazetteSimmons’ violent hatred of pedophiles may have stemmed from a perceived incident with his daughter.
Detective Jason Gasper revealed that the Colorado mother believed her daughter was sexually assaulted by Simmons’ stepfather, whom she stabbed in 2019 after a raging custody dispute.
Prosecutors argued that the 38-year-old’s ongoing obsession with child abuse stemmed from a fear that her daughter was a victim of sex trafficking, the Gazette reported.
In October 2023, police found Ceja’s body in a drainage ditch near the 500 block of W. Polk Street, following an anonymous tip about human remains in a bag.
At another point in the trial, CSPD Detective Jerry Shiffelbei testified that one of Simmons’ former cellmates told him the pedophile had said she once killed a man because she believed he was a child molester.
Further incriminating evidence came in the form of a Facebook message the killer allegedly sent to a witness via Facebook messenger.
“DID YOU CLEAN THE HOUSE?” Simmons allegedly wrote in a letter to someone who was allegedly involved in cleaning the garage after the murder.
During the trial, Ceja’s parents, Karen and Barry Joseph Fancher, gave heartbreaking statements about the impact on the victims.
“Dax (Ceja) was a good person. He didn’t deserve to die this way,” Father Barry Fancher said.
“He was killed for something he did 24 years ago,” Karen Fancher said. “She’s not going to be out on the streets hurting other people’s families like she’s been doing all her life.”
In addition to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Simmons was sentenced to 24 years for tampering with a corpse and three years for tampering with physical evidence.
In a statement, the district attorney said she had been charged with first-degree murder after deliberation, violent crime with a weapon, tampering with a deceased human body, among other things.
“The successful outcome in this case, against a woman who has proven to be a danger to members of our community, required the dedication and perseverance of many members of my office,” said District Attorney Michael Allen.
