Plea deal is reached in woman's murder
By John Joyce
Published in News on June 5, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Clifton Wayne Griffin, right, is sworn in before accepting a plea agreement for second-degree murder in the death of Donna Simpson in 2004 in Courtroom No. 1 of the Wayne County Courthouse Thursday. Also pictured is Griffin's attorney, Steve Fisher.
Due to a plea agreement on second-degree murder charges accepted in Wayne County Superior Court Friday afternoon, Clifton Wayne Griffin will be 78 years old when he is first eligible for parole.
Griffin, 50, confessed in court to killing his girlfriend, Donna Simpson, 49, in the couple's mobile home on Leavie Drive in 2014.
The exact date of the murder remains unknown. Ms. Simpson's body was discovered Oct. 13, 2014. She was last seen at work Sept. 26.
Griffin will serve 28 to 34 years in a N.C. state prison, less credit for time served.
Griffin told investigators the two argued about his drinking after Ms. Simpson came home from work one day in early October. He said she assaulted him, and so he got behind her and put her in a "sleeper hold" until she went limp.
Realizing what he had done, Griffin attempted CPR to no avail and then tried to commit suicide by taking anti-depressants and going to sleep next to the body.
When that also failed, he simply deposited Ms. Simpson's body in a closet and covered her with clothes.
"He stayed in the house for five days, until the smell got too bad for him to stay there," Assistant District Attorney Davis Weddle told the court.
Griffin concealed the killing by telling neighbors and friends Ms. Simpson had left him and returned to her family in Pennsylvania.
His ruse worked until the decomposing body made the couple's home uninhabitable. That is when Griffin asked a friend to help him dispose of the body.
The friend agreed, but then went to the authorities. Detectives went to the trailer, but were forced to don hazmat suits before entering due to the decomposition of the body. Detectives then went to find Griffin, who at first maintained Ms. Simpson had gone north to be with family. When detectives asked him to accompany them back to the trailer, however, Griffin broke into a tearful confession, Weddle told the court.
By the time the remains were recovered, Ms. Simpson had been dead nearly three weeks, Detective Tammy Mozingo said.
"The fact she was in the closet for three weeks ... we just wanted to get justice for her family. And for her," Mrs. Mozingo said.
Weddle said he decided to offer the plea agreement because a jury might have had difficulty understanding the medical examiner's explanation of the cause of death.
The autopsy showed she died of asphyxiation due to neck compression.
"The one concern I had was over the body being so severely decomposed when it went to the medical examiner. The M.E. would have had a hard time saying what did or didn't happen," Weddle said.
Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Arnold O. Jones accepted the plea agreement and sentenced Griffin to a minimum of 336 months and a maximum of 418 months in prison. Griffin pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and concealment of death. The sentence for the latter charge carried a maximum punishment of 119 months, which Griffin will serve concurrently with the sentence for second-degree murder.
Following the sentencing, which included a financial judgment of $1,900 awarded to Ms. Simpson's sole-surviving relative -- an 85-year-old aunt in Pennsylvania -- Mozingo said she was satisfied justice had been served.
"Absolutely," she said.