Doctor in murder trial says Columbus man’s head injury from fight caused death days later

Christopher Williams died from head trauma that left 100 milliliters of blood clogging the right side of his brain, a medical examiner testified Wednesday in the Columbus murder trial of Michael Edward Simmons.

Prosecutors say that bleeding was the result of Simmons punching Williams three times in the head as Williams lay on the ground outside the Oakland Park home of his fiance’s mother on Oct. 13, 2022.

Williams, 55, complained of headaches and nausea afterward, and avoided bright light, which seemed to aggravate his symptoms, investigators said. He fell dead the following Oct. 19.

Simmons was charged with murder and aggravated assault after Williams’ autopsy on Oct. 24. That examination was conducted by Georgia Bureau of Investigation medical examiner Samantha Mattox.

Mattox testified that she found scrapes to Williams’ face, which appeared to be healing, but no fractures to the bones of his face were apparent. She could not say when, exactly, he sustained those injuries.

She also could not pinpoint when the bleeding began in his brain, but she said that it clearly was caused by a “blunt force injury to the head” and that Williams’ manner of death was homicide, or death at the hands of another.

When defense attorney Anthony Johnson suggested other, natural causes for the hemorrhaging, such as high blood pressure, a stroke, or liver or heart disease, Mattox said those possibilities did not fit the evidence she found.

People with liver or heart disease “don’t walk around with a brain bleed in the head,” she said. No disease would cause the blood vessels in Williams head to tear apart and bleed out, she testified.

The fight

The brawl between Simmons and Williams happened at the Blan Street home of Effie Martin, whom Simmons previously had dated, before they broke up.

Martin testified Tuesday that the pair had maintained no romantic relationship, after they split in 2020, but continued to meet occasionally “on a friendly basis.”

Williams was engaged to Martin’s daughter, who in October 2022 was in a rehabilitation center for a drug addiction, said prosecutor Anthony Pickett. Williams began staying at Martin’s home to keep her company.

Martin testified that Simmons showed up at her home around 8:30 p.m. looking for her, banging on her front door and then knocking on her bedroom window. She had gone to bed, and did not answer, she said.

Williams arrived just as Simmons came around from the window, and the two got into a struggle outside, she said.

Pickett said Simmons punched Williams, knocking him “out cold,” and then hit Williams three more times while Williams as down, before Martin pulled him away.

On Oct. 18, Martin fed Williams some soup, but he threw up and went to bed. She later found him dead on the floor of his bedroom.

Police arrested Simmons, now 61, the following Nov. 4. He has spent a year in jail awaiting trial.

Convicted at 16

At the time of his arrest, Simmons already had spent most of his life behind bars, having been convicted of killing his 7-year-old half-sister Dawn Worth, also in Oakland Park.

The girl vanished the morning of April 21, 1978, when Simmons was supposed to have escorted her to school. Her body was found three days later in a nearby pond, her hands tied behind her back. She had been raped and drowned.

Questioned the next day, Simmons told police he had helped Dawn get dressed for school and sent her on her way.

But during his trial in October 1979, an aunt testified that she overheard Simmons tell his mother he had tried to make Dawn go to school, but she followed him to the pit, where he tied her arms behind her back and put her in the water while they were playing.

Convicted of rape and malice or intentional murder, Simmons served 39 years and one month in prison. He was freed on May 9, 2018, and released to the same Wise Street home where he lived as a teen, according to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.