by SEAN KIMMONS
Buda murder and arson suspect Mark David Simmons was extradited back to Hays County last week after the county district attorney filed a governor’s warrant to release him from Missouri, officials say.
On Friday, Hays County Sheriff’s Office deputies completed the extradition of Simmons, 51, who has been booked into the Hays County Jail for capital murder on a $300,000 bond set by Judge Margie Hernandez.
In late June, Simmons surrendered peacefully after an eight and a half hour standoff in Missouri after police suspected that he had robbed two local motels.
Simmons had tried to fight extradition to Texas, where prosecutors could seek the death penalty if he is convicted of killing his business partner, Steven Woefel, at his Buda home in April.
He is accused of stealing firearms from Woefel’s home after he allegedly tried to cover up evidence of the murder by burning the victim in the garage and causing an explosion in the home with a disconnected gas line to the stove and a lit candle nearby, investigators say.
The sheriff’s office says that it worked alongside the Texas Rangers and U.S. Marshal’s Office to conduct the extradition.
The extradition was expedited when the Taney County prosecutor in Branson, Mo., dropped a weapons charge against Simmons in July. Hays County District Attorney Sherri Tibbe then filed a governor’s warrant to retrieve an unwilling Simmons.
“He can fight extradition, but one way or another he has to come back,” Tibbe had said. “It doesn’t matter if he wants to or not.”
Taney County Prosecutor Jeff Merrell said that his office may pursue the gun charge and others related to the motel burglaries depending on the outcome of the murder trial, which has yet to be set.
Simmons was on the run until the motel robberies in Branson caught up with him. Branson police say that he is suspected of robbing a Super 8 Motel at gunpoint after unsuccessfully attempting to rob the Spinning Wheel Motel a few days before the June 29 standoff.
Branson police found Simmons’ silver-blue 2008 Hyundai Sonata, believed to be used in the robberies, parked at the motel. Investigators ran the plates on the car and tied the vehicle to the Hays County case.
Simmons’ mother, Wanda Simmons, had said that her son, a paranoid schizophrenic not currently medicated, stole the Hyundai from her home in Rockport, Texas, on April 1, the last time she saw him.
On April 17, Woelfel was discovered in the charred rubble of his garage. Investigators say the 55-year-old had been dead for at least a week.
Authorities believe Simmons was staying with Woelfel and started the fire to cover up his murder. It appears that he also rigged the house to explode and possibly harm emergency personnel called out to the fire, an arrest affidavit said.
About five minutes after Buda firefighters arrived at the garage fire, an explosion blew out the windows of the home and ripped the back wall off the structure. No injuries were reported.
A strong odor of cleaning products was also detected throughout the house. The guest bedroom and bathroom in Woelfel’s home were wiped clean and linens were stripped from the bed, as if the person living with him wanted to hide his identity, the affidavit says.
Investigators say that bedding was located in the burnt garage along with a torn-up note, matching Simmons’ handwriting, on how to clean up a crime scene. Sources close to the investigation say Woelfel was shot in the head execution-style.
Simmons also has an active arrest warrant out of Aransas County, Texas for illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
