How Did He Get Out? Teen on Murder Parole Faces Life for Brutal Attack of Elderly Woman | Crime Alert 9AM 05.01.25

A Texas teen out on parole for murder is now accused of attacking and robbing an elderly woman in Houston. Eleven high school lacrosse players in New York face criminal charges after a hazing stunt in Onondaga County spirals into an alleged staged kidnapping. Drew Nelson reports.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime a Lord hourly update Breaking crime news Now.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm Drew Nelson. A Texas teenager out on parole, could
now face life after being accused of attacking and robbing
an elderly woman in Houston. Eighty one year old Sandra
Glenn was loading her car at her apartment near Harwin
Drive when a young man walked up to her. She
said he pulled the lanyard holding her keys around her
neck and then knocked her to the ground.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
I didn't take two stay ups ninety to two sales
when I failed him on my neck and just hurt
him up behind.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Me, Glenn speaking here to k t r K.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
He had about seven cars and he totaled my car.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Glenn was taken to the hospital. Police later identified the
suspect as Benny Simmons. He had just turned eighteen days
before his arrest. Helpfully for police, he dropped his cell
phone at the scene. At the time of the robbery,
Simmons was on parole for a twenty twenty one murder.
He had shot and killed twenty one year old Shaka
Haywood during a robbery when he was fourteen. Simmons was

(00:58):
sentenced to twenty twenty tie two to twenty years for
capital murder and aggravated robbery. His mother said he took
a plea deal, pleading guilty in exchange for a guaranteed
parole hearing before his eighteenth birthday. The Parole board released
him in December, less than three years after his conviction.
His mother told reporters Simmons earned his ged and construction
certificates while in prison. She said he was being treated

(01:20):
for ADHD and bipolar disorder. Glenn, of course, did not
know about simmons past until after his arrest.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
IY.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
They need to find out why he got out.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
I won.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
That just makes no sense.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Glenn adds that she's quote scared to death of people now,
fearing strangers like Simmons could get violent with her again.
If convicted in the robbery case, simmons parole will likely
be revoked, forcing him to serve the rest of his
twenty year murder sentence. He also faces the possibility of
life in prison for the new charge due to Glenn's age.
Simmons remains in the Harris County Jail with bond set

(01:52):
at one hundred thousand dollars. More Crime and Justice news.
After this eleven high school lacrosse players in New York
faced criminal charges after a hazing stunt in Onondaga County
spirals into what the district attorney calls a staged kidnapping.
Older students from West Hill High School's varsity lacrosse team

(02:15):
took younger teammates out after a game. They told them
they were going to McDonald's instead. The driver claimed to
be lost and pulled into a remote area in the
woods in southern Onondoga County. Then, as they had planned,
other students dressed in black, jumped out of the woods.
They held what appeared to be a gun and a knife.
One of the younger players had a pillowcase put over
his head, his hands were tied. He was thrown into

(02:37):
the trunk of a car and taken deeper into the woods.
Eventually he was taken home. District Attorney William Fitzpatrick says
the student feared he would be left alone in the woods.
Video of the act showed other students laughing. Fitzpatrick said, quote,
it is not a rite of passage. It is not
a trivial matter. Four other students managed to escape before
being fully abducted. Fitzpatrick said the prank quote went way

(03:00):
beyond hazing, and warned it could have ended tragically if
police had stumbled onto the scene. The Sheriff's office identified
at least eleven students involved, most of them under eighteen.
Fitzpatrick gave them forty eight hours to turn themselves in,
and all of them did so. They received appearance tickets
for unlawful imprisonment, which is a misdemeanor. Those who did
not comply would have faced a felony kidnapping charge and

(03:23):
adult prosecution. West Hill High School canceled the rest of
the boy's varsity lacrosse season. Trudy Appleby was last seen
in the morning of August twenty first of nineteen ninety six.
She was eleven. A neighbor spotted her getting into a
silver or gray four door car in the driveway of
her home in Mollene, Illinois. The driver was white, in
his twenties with long, curly hair, wearing a baseball cap.

(03:45):
Trudy was never seen again. She had asked her father
earlier that day if she could go swimming. He said no.
She may have gone anyway. She took a swimsuit and
a towel with her, but left behind about two hundred
bucks she had saved when her father came home from
work and couldn't find her reported her missing. The car
she got into matched the type of vehicle driven by
William ed Smith, a friend of her father. In twenty seventeen,

(04:07):
police named Smith a suspect. A witness later said he
saw Trudy in Smith's car that day and claimed Smith
threatened to kill him if he told police. Smith died
in twenty fourteen. He had his car scrapped shortly after
Trudy vanished, and typically got upset whenever her name came up.
Investigators believed Trudy may have been taken on a boat
trip on the Mississippi River with Smith and his son

(04:28):
in law, David Whipple. Trudy had often spent time on
the river with Whipple's family. Her father thinks something went
wrong on the water and the men covered it up.
Whipple refused to speak to police. He was a registered
sex offender and died in twenty twenty two. In twenty twenty,
police named a third man, Jamie Fisher, as a person
of interest. He was a longtime friend of the Smith family,

(04:48):
and police believed Fisher and Whipple knew what happened and
may have helped hide it. Fisher is now in prison
on unrelated charges. He is due for release next year.
Trudy was white with brown hair, blue eyes. She was
about for eight seventy five pounds. She'd be forty today.
Anyone with information contact Mullen Police at three h nine
seven nine seven zero four zero one. For the latest

(05:09):
crime and justice news. Follow crime alerts hourly update on
your favorite podcast app with this crime alert. I'mdrew Nelson.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
How could a beautiful young first grade teacher be stabbed
twenty times, including in the back, allegedly die of suicide? Yes,
that was the medical examiner's official ruling after a closed
door meeting. He first named it a homicide. Why what
Happened to Ellen Greenberg? A huge American miscarriage of justice.

(05:48):
For an in depth look at the facts, see What
Happened to Ellen on Amazon. All proceeds to the National
Center From and Exploited Children