Darryl Simms was sentenced to death for the third time Friday in Du Page County Circuit Court for the murder of of Lillian LaCrosse on April 17, 1985, in the Addison apartment complex where they both lived.
Circuit Judge Ronald B. Mehling, who presided over 11 days of sentencing hearings during a three-week period in September and October, formally ordered the sentence that a jury pronounced on Oct. 8.
Although Simms’ conviction has never been overturned in appeals, his death sentence was reversed on two occasions by the Illinois Appellate Court on procedural grounds and sent back to Du Page County for resentencing.
On Friday, Mehling set Simms’ execution date for Jan. 21, although Simms will not be put to death then since the latest sentence will automatically be appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.
Mehling denied motions by Simms’ lawyers to reverse the guilty verdict.
Simms, 32, made his own motion to appoint an attorney to argue his claim that his three lawyers inadequately represented him in the sentencing phase of the case. He said they failed to call certain witnesses and that they wrongly advised him not to take the witness stand himself. The judge denied that motion also.
Simms was convicted of murder, rape and other charges in the slaying of LaCrosse, 25, in her apartment while her children slept nearby and her husband was at one of his two full-time jobs.
Simms was then 24 and out of state prison just five months after serving a term for a knife attack on a Bellwood woman.
Police said they believed he gained entry to the hallway of LaCrosse’s building through a normally locked security door that had been temporarily propped open by a utility repair crew.
