The New York man accused of making death threats to two cable TV anchors over their coverage of the Jodi Arias trial entered a not guilty plea in court this week.
According to a report from CBS 5 News in Arizona, David Lee Simpson, 48, of Bath, N.Y., was arraigned Thursday morning at the Maricopa County Superior Court.
He faces five felony counts regarding threats he made on Twitter against Nancy Grace and Jane Velez-Mitchell, hosts on Turner Broadcasting's HLN network.
Simpson made the threats against the news commentators because he allegedly became infuriated over comments they made during their coverage of the Arias trial. He was appointed a public offender in Phoenix on Thursday.
According to PressConnects.com, Simpson was in N.Y. when he sent the tweets, but Arizona officials claimed jurisdiction for the case because the threats were made against individuals during their coverage of a trial that occurred in Maricopa County and because both women were in Arizona at the time they were threatened.
Included in the tweets that Simpson sent to Grace and Velez-Mitchell were threats to strap the women to a "tree naked and leave them to suffer all night," then "slit their throats."
"He also told an employee where he worked previously that he wanted to hang the commentator by her feet and gut her like a deer," said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
A grand jury indicted Simpson on July 19. After the indictment he reportedly quit his job and told co-workers that he was leaving town. While in his car, headed out of state, Simpson was pulled over and arrested.
Inside his car, officers found guns, ammunition, knives, handcuffs and zip-ties. Police seized all of these items, which will be used as evidence in the case against Simpson.
According to Arpaio, Simpson admitted to Arizona authorities that on the day he was arrested he had been on his way to Georgia to kill Grace by "putting a knife" between her legs and slicing her to death.
Simpson's next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 17.
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