The former business partner of a Texas real estate magnate whose wife disappeared has been accused of helping his friend hide evidence related to her murder.
James ‘Val’ Cotter, 65, was indicted by a grand jury Monday on felony charges of tampering with evidence with intent to prejudice an investigation and possession of prohibited weapons in the case of missing real estate agent Suzanne Simpson. San Antonio Express-News reports.
He is accused of entering the gun room of mother-of-four Brad’s husband on Oct. 8 and stealing an AK-47 that prosecutors say was illegally modified into a “machine gun” and was not properly registered. according to KSAT.
an arrest warrant obtained by My San Antonio He claims Brad, 53, approached him that day and asked for help hiding a gun.
‘If you’re in Bandera can you bring a** and meet me at your house?’ Brad allegedly wrote.
He later allegedly told Cotter “make sure you leave all that shit in the pump room, especially the gun.”
“Sorry for the urgency, but you’re all I have, especially now… social media is destroying me,” Brad texted his old friend, according to the warrant.
When questioned by police, Cotter initially claimed that Simpson was referring to a .22 caliber rifle he had taken from Simpson’s home.
James ‘Val’ Cotter, 65, was indicted by a grand jury Monday on felony counts of tampering with evidence with intent to prejudice an investigation and possession of prohibited weapons in the case of missing mother of four Suzanne Simpson.
She was last seen walking through her exclusive Texas country club, hours before a neighbor said she got into a physical altercation with her husband.
But an anonymous witness later told police that Cotter had actually taken an AK47 from the Brad family vault that was stocked with weapons, according to the warrant.
Cotter was then arrested on October 22 when police officers found the rifle hidden behind a false wall in his Bandera home.
He posted bail on Nov. 8, after a judge reduced his bail from $1 million to $100,000.
Under the conditions of his release, Cotter cannot have any contact with Brad or be in possession of any firearm. You must also wear a GPS monitor, surrender your passport to authorities, and submit to drug and alcohol testing.
Meanwhile, Brad faces first-degree murder charges in his wife’s disappearance, even though investigators never found her body.
Suzanne’s family has he told KABB that authorities told them his DNA was found on a handheld reciprocating saw, a motorized hand saw, which is mentioned in a newly unsealed indictment.
He claimed that Brad “knowing that an investigation was underway, specifically a missing persons investigation,” hid the saw on October 8 “with the intent of preventing its availability as evidence in the investigation.” My reports from San Antonio.
The indictment does not specify how he hid the weapon or where it was found.
Prosecutors say he was a longtime friend of real estate magnate Brad Simpson (right) and helped him hide a gun after his wife disappeared.
Brad, 53, was previously indicted by a grand jury for first-degree murder.
The real estate mogul was first arrested on October 9 in Kendall County, three days after the 51-year-old mother of four was last seen outside her $1.5 million home in the luxurious Olmos Park in San Antonio, having an altercation with him.
A neighbor claimed that shortly before 11 p.m. on October 6, they saw Brad and Suzanne in the middle of a heated argument in their garage and were “physically fighting” each other.
At some point, they said Suzanne “was trying to escape Mr. Simpson’s grasp as he attempted to pull her down,” and then he chased after her when she ran away, according to the affidavit.
The neighbor also allegedly claimed he heard screaming in a wooded area, before Brad reappeared about an hour later and drove away in his truck.
The Simpsons’ five-year-old son was also questioned by a school counselor and claimed that his father “pushed his mother against the wall, (physically) punched his mother in the face, and hurt his mother’s elbow inside their residence.” “.
Brad also allegedly “turned off his mom’s phone because they were fighting,” the girl said.
Suzanne’s family said authorities told them her DNA was found on a handheld reciprocating saw, a motorized hand saw, which is mentioned in a newly unsealed indictment.
Police say Brad was seen the next day with bulky garbage bags and coolers covered with a tarp in the bed of his truck while he broke into a Whataburger. according to the New York Post.
He allegedly purchased concrete and visited a landfill before spending 13 minutes in nearby Bandera, where he apparently unloaded a large object from the bed of his truck.
It was that day that Brad first reported his wife missing, and the next day he was allegedly seen buying Clorox wipes and cement.
A man said Simpson approached him in the Home Depot parking lot and asked him where the nearest landfill was, the San Antonio Express-News reports.
Authorities also said that in the early days of the missing persons investigation, Brad “did not show any emotion.”
They said he seemed “indifferent to his wife’s disappearance and showed little to no emotion,” and a Texas game warden also noted that Brad had several scratches and lacerations on his hands and arms.
Detectives later explained that his chilling behavior was a factor that led them to believe Brad “intentionally and knowingly caused the death” of his wife on October 6 in San Antonio.
They noted that Brad initially cooperated with police, but said he later gave conflicting stories when pressed for details about his wife’s disappearance.
At first, he claimed he last saw her at 11 p.m. on October 6, hours after Suzanne was last seen walking around her exclusive Texas country club.
But at another point he claimed he last saw her around 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 7, shortly before he said he dropped one of his children off at school.
He said he “peered into a separate room and observed his sleeping wife” that morning.
When investigators searched his phone, they allegedly discovered that he had “engaged in a series of complete blackouts” that began at 11:09 p.m. on October 6 and ended the next day.
He allegedly went beyond turning off his phone and instead put it on “Lock” mode, which according to his arrest affidavit the FBI classifies as “done by a person who wants to avoid detection.”
But on October 9, police reportedly made a breakthrough when Texas Rangers located a ground-level burn site on Simpson’s Bandera property, where they found a burned laptop and three cell phones that once belonged to him. .
When Brad was arrested, officers said he “did not appear surprised at the time of his arrest” nor did he “question” why he was detained on charges of assault causing bodily injury, family violence and unlawful restraint.
Authorities continue to search for her remains, believing she is dead.
Brad now faces charges of second-degree tampering with evidence with intent to injure a human corpse, third-degree possession of prohibited weapons, and third-degree tampering/fabrication of physical evidence with intent to injure.
If convicted, he could receive a sentence of between two and 99 years or life in prison, depending on the charges for which he is convicted.
But his lawyer has argued that prosecutors cannot charge Brad without saying how he could have killed his wife.
Public defender Steven Gilmore called the indictment “vague, indefinite, ambiguous and uncertain” and argued that if the indictment doesn’t say how Simpson killed his wife or where he hid the body, it’s impossible to build a reasonable defense.
He said the state must present more evidence before prosecution continues.
Brad is now due back in court on Thursday for a bail modification hearing and will appear in court on April 8 for a custody hearing.