EVERETT — The woman portrayed herself to police as an innocent victim.
Her reputation among others living in Everett’s homeless camps was quite different.
And now she stands accused of orchestrating the fatal beating of David Alan Webster, whose body was recovered from a swampy area near I-5 and the railroad tracks April 7.
An Everett District Court judge Monday set bail at $1 million for Christine Simpson, 49. She was arrested Friday.
She is accused of getting her boyfriend, James Daniel Archer, 46, to confront Webster, 54. Both men lived in the homeless camps.
Police believe Webster was killed March 8 off Eclipse Mill Road. Archer, 46, is accused of beating and robbing him.
Webster’s body was found partially submerged in a marshy area near a homeless camp. Webster had been stuffed into a sleeping bag that was tied up. Archer allegedly confessed.
Everett police submitted a seven-page report to the court outlining why they believed there was probable cause to arrest Simpson.
“She was the person who set the entire thing in motion,” Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Toni Montgomery said in court Monday.
The investigation found that Simpson allegedly approached two people at different times to rob Webster. She allegedly told the first person that Webster hadn’t paid back a drug debt. That person refused to help her. She later allegedly told Archer that Webster had come into her camp, made advances and stole money from her.
Detectives believe that Simpson kept watch while Archer killed Webster.
“Mrs. Simpson not only solicited the act, but took on the active role of being a lookout while the crime was being committed,” detectives wrote. “Furthermore, she directed Mr. Archer as to what needed to be done with Mr. Webster’s body after he’d been killed.”
A witness told police that Simpson was a drug dealer who would give others money or drugs to collect on her customer’s debts, even if that sometimes meant using physical force.
One witness allegedly told police that Simpson threatened to end her relationship if Archer didn’t take care of Webster.
“The individual didn’t believe that Mr. Webster would have actually tried to sleep with Ms. Simpson; he believed that Ms. Simpson had been trying to make things look worse than they were so that Mr. Archer would get upset and enforce for her,” police wrote.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com
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