By Staff
From staff reports
June 27, 2002
A Paulding Road man faces an Aug. 26 sentencing date in U.S. District Court after pleading guilty late last week to carjacking and killing Meridian postal worker Brenda Rogers on Oct. 3, 2000.
Michael Sims on Friday entered his plea before Judge Tom S. Lee, said Woody Bond, an assistant U.S. attorney.
Sims pleaded guilty to murdering a federal employee who was carrying out her duties and carjacking resulting in death.
The federal government is authorized to seek the death penalty but Sims pleaded guilty on the condition that the death penalty not be imposed against him, Bond said. As a result, Sims will serve life without the possibility of release, Bond said.
Sims, 30, and Thaddeus Brown, 20, of St. Francis Apartments, were accused of abducting Rogers. Brown has reportedly pleaded guilty to carjacking resulting in death, but sentencing has not been set. Bond said Brown would have been the government's witnesses had Sims stood trial.
According to Bond, Brown and Sims were burglarizing a house in rural Kemper County, couldn't get their car started, went looking for gasoline without success, then saw Rogers delivering the mail in her car.
According to Bond, Sims abducted Rogers at gunpoint and drove to her the house that he and Brown had been burglarizing, where Sims shot and killed her with a 9 mm handgun.