A jury recommended Kenneth Lee Simpson be sentenced to death Friday evening in Franklin County Circuit Court. 

After over 8 hours of deliberation, a Greene County jury unanimously decided on the death penalty just after 7:30 p.m. for Simpson, 38, as punishment for the murder of Hermann Police Detective Sgt. Mason Griffith in 2023.

The jury had found Simpson guilty of the murder Saturday, Jan. 24. He was also convicted of the first-degree assault of Officer Adam Sullentrup and seven other related crimes. The jury spent last week hearing testimony in the penalty phase of the trial.

Simpson has a lengthy criminal history in Warren County.

Friday morning, in closing statements, Assistant Attorney General Greg Goodwin asked the jury to impose the harshest possible punishment allowed by law. The shooting incident that killed Griffith and injured Sullentrup shattered their respective communities, Goodwin argued.

“Today is a day of accountability and justice,” Goodwin said.

The attorney added that mercy should not be granted to Simpson and is “not appropriate” in this case.

“He didn’t show an ounce of mercy” to Sullentrup and Griffith, Goodwin argued.

Mercy is precisely what Simpson’s defense team asked for in their closing statement. Public Defender Stephen Reynolds conceded that Simpson had committed the murder and destroyed lives in the process. He said Simpson’s actions in its wake were “revolting” and “repulsive” — specifically, when Simpson bragged about the murder during a video call from the Franklin County Adult Detention Center, flexing his muscles on camera and saying, “Beast mode.” A recording of that video call was shown in court Jan. 27.

But Reynolds said the jury still had the option of giving Simpson a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole.

“No matter what your decision, Kenny Simpson is going to die in prison. It’s a matter of when. That’s your decision,” he said.

Missouri law requires the prosecution to prove one of several aggravating factors in a first-degree murder before the death penalty can be considered. Together with Assistant Public Defender Tristin Estep, Goodwin sought to prove seven such aggravating factors: that Simpson had committed the murder while attempting to commit another homicide; that the murder was committed with a weapon that created a “great risk” to others; that it was a part of a plan to kill more than one person and exhibited a “callous disregard for the sanctity of all human life”; that the murder was random, meaning that Simpson would have murdered any policeman and not just Griffith; that Griffith was serving in his official capacity as a police officer at the time of his murder; that Simpson committed the murder while resisting arrest; and that Simpson committed the murder in part to conceal that he was carrying drugs.

The jury found that six of those aggravating factors existed. Only the last aggravator, concealing drugs, was not found.

However, the finding of the aggravating factors did not mean the jury was required to impose the death penalty, as Reynolds and Public Defender Patricia Poe pointed out. Reynolds said the jury could spare Simpson’s life for any reason they chose.

“Mercy is not deserved. It’s not earned. It’s just given,” Reynolds said.

The decision brings an end to the two-week trial that drew dozens of spectators each day. Family members of the victims and the defendant took the stand to testify during the proceedings, as well as Sullentrup himself. Both sides of the gallery shed tears when the foreperson of the jury read their decision.

The last person to be executed by the state of Missouri, Lance Shockley, was also found guilty of first-degree murder of a police officer, Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Shockley committed the crime in 2005 and was executed Oct. 14, 2025.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway's office made a formal statement Friday night thanking the jury for bringing "accountability," but said the decision cannot bring "closure." 

“Throughout this process, our responsibility has been to pursue justice with care and resolve. We honor these heroes by standing with those who serve and by upholding the rule of law even in the hardest moments," Hanaway said. 

The case was passed to June 12 at 1 p.m. for formal sentencing.